Crain's Detroit Business, March 27, 2017 issue by Crain's Detroit Business

MARCH 27 - APRIL 2, 2017

How companies groom new leaders

Jazz fest plots future Event aims at sustainability with help from patron Valade, Page 3

The secrets to improving from within, Page 8

Manufacturing

Matching the machine

Sports business

‘Augmented reality’ has potential to boost business productivity

By Dustin Walsh

“(Augmented reality) is used sort of like turn-by-turn GPS in your car, except for manufacturing,” said Paul Ryznar, president and CEO of OPS. “When there’s only four turns, it’s easy; but if there are 50 turns, you’re going to make a mistake. Manufacturing is now all about variation and complicated processes. Our system eliminates that risk for errors. All the worker has to do is follow the lights.” It’s an update on a Japanese concept called poka yoke, or driving down costs and increasing productivity in the manufacturing process through “dummy proofing,” and has been used for decades. The Japanese term, coined in the 1960s by a Toyota Motor Corp. engineer, defined the just-in-time production philosophy first implemented by Toyota before spreading to the other automakers. Production quality and efficiency spiked from implementation of the process. OPS is now taking advantage of a new poka yoke renaissance. OPS is experiencing 100 percent year-over-year growth and plans to maintain that rate as more companies see how augmented reality can increase productivity, Ryznar said. Companies across the manufacturing sector are experimenting with augmented reality — most often with wearable devices, or glasses, rather than OPS’ projector system. Though, Ryznar said, wearables can create safety concerns as the image display on the eyeglasses impair worker vision. General Electric Co. is experimenting with augmented reality in its oil and gas division. Technicians assembling and inspecting nozzles for its heavy-duty gas turbines at GE’s Florence, Italy plant need to make 100 precise measurements before the part is

dwalsh@crain.com

The modern intersection of technology and work is a paradox. It’s both responsible for climbing corporate profits, and for mass job losses and rising income inequality. This has been called the robot revolution, but it’s not all doom and gloom for the laborer class. A new breed of technologies called “augmented reality” — fueling popular mobile games like Pokemon Go — is altering that perception. It holds the potential to boost productivity and make economic growth through manufacturing a reality. The innovation is one part interactive how-to and one part idiot-proofing, and is gaining traction in manufacturing, health care and other fields. Wixom-based OPS Solutions LLC makes software powering augmented reality currently expanding through the automotive sector. It works like this: The software, called “Light Guide Systems” uses projectors to overlay step-bystep images and instructions, complete with visual cues like arrows and videos on parts and production areas to assist workers with proper assembly. A worker follows visual indicators to complete each step of the manufacturing process. A red light flashes and a buzzer sounds if a step is missed or incorrect part is used. It’s a deceptively simple way to get some huge productivity and quality gains. At automaker FCA US LLC’s UAW-Chrysler National Training Center, roughly 5,000 new employees are training in standard manual assembly on OPS Light Guide systems. FCA revealed the OPS system boosted worker productivity by 38 percent and quality rose by 80 percent.

WILDPIXEL VIA ISTOCK

NEWSPAPER

crainsdetroit.com Vol. 33 No 13

$2 a copy. $59 a year.

SEE REALITY, PAGE 15

Scanning for opportunity Rock Holdings’ school digitization project emblematic of a different way of looking at philanthropy, Page 3

Teams’ exec ranks slow to shed boys’ club reality By Bill Shea bshea@crain.com

A little over a year ago, National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell announced that pro football’s diversity rules would expand to require that women be interviewed for executive jobs inside the league’s headquarters. The NFL’s 30 teams didn’t have to adopt the change, but the Detroit Lions say they have. That’s one step toward increased gender diversity in male-dominated U.S. major league sports. A small step, with miles to go. At a time when gender equality has taken center stage in the national conversation, Detroit’s four pro teams have very few women in top front office roles, at vice president or higher: The Lions have three, the Tigers and Pistons two each, and the Red Wings one. Though the teams and their leagues are making progress, it’s a problem when studies prove that gender diversity is good for business and women make up increasing shares of the teams’ fan bases. SEE WOMEN, PAGE 16

C R A I N ’ S D E T R O I T B U S I N E S S // M A R C H 2 7 , 2 0 1 7

MICHIGAN BRIEFS

INSIDE

Uber, Lyft can operate legally in Michigan Ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft can operate legally in Michigan now that new licensing rules are in effect. Gov. Rick Snyder in December signed legislation that created a standard set of regulations for socalled transportation network companies, limo carriers and taxi companies. They took effect this week. The new rules require criminal background checks for drivers and vehicle inspections, and drivers wouldn’t be allowed to work for a company if they have more than four recent traffic violations or any recent felony convictions. Companies would have to pay annual registration fees and have vehicle signage or decals approved by the state. Taxis will now be regulated by the state, rather than by local governments. The Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs will have oversight of transportation network companies. The new regulations also satisfy concerns about insurance coverage, particularly for San Francisco-based Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. The bills had sparked debate about the ride-hailing companies’ ability

BANKRUPTCIES

CALENDAR

CLASSIFIED ADS

DEALS & DETAILS

KEITH CRAIN

OPINION

OTHER VOICES

PEOPLE

RUMBLINGS

WEEK ON THE WEB

COMPANY INDEX: SEE PAGE 18 Ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft can operate legally in Michigan now that new licensing rules are in effect. to operate at airports, including Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Romulus. The legislation was an effort to authorize ride-hailing services, which previously operated outside the legal framework for similar for-hire transportation companies.

Public school advocates to sue state Public school advocates on Tuesday sued the state of Michigan in an effort to stop it from spending public money to help private schools cover the cost of complying with state requirements such as safety drills, The

Associated Press reported. The lawsuit, filed in the Court of claims, challenges $2.5 million in funding that was set aside by the Republican-controlled Legislature and Gov. Rick Snyder for the first time in the current budget for nonpublic schools. The Michigan Association of School Boards and groups representing school districts and administrators said the planned spending is illegal because the state constitution prohibits spending public money on private schools and the state Senate fell short of the minimum two-thirds vote that would have been needed to allocate

UBER

the aid for a private purpose. T hey called it a “backdoor voucher.”

EPA awards $100 million for Flint work The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded $100 million to help fund infrastructure upgrades in Flint amid the city’s crisis with lead-tainted water, The Associ-

ated Press reported. The grant announced March 17 was promised to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality by Congress in December. It aims to help Flint accelerate and expand its work to replace lead water service lines and fund other critical water infrastructure improvements. Mayor Karen Weaver said in a statement that the much-needed money will help Flint reach a goal of replacing 6,000 pipes this year.

Correction J A Deals & Details item on Page 11 contains an incorrect URL for the Detroit Dog Co. website. It is www.detroitdogco.com. The error was discovered after that page went to press.

Nominate your company as one of Michigan’s Cool Places to Work in Michigan returns for another year. This prestigious program recognizes employers that go the extra mile to make their employees feel appreciated – as judged, in part, by the employees themselves.

NOMINATE your Cool Place to Work today at crainsdetroit.com/nominate

320= ;))/7 0)*8 83 231-2%8)

DEADLINE: APRIL 7, 2017

C R A I N ’ S D E T R O I T B U S I N E S S // M A R C H 2 7 , 2 0 1 7

Philanthropy

Commerce

Year-round Daylight Saving Time? Buyer beware By Lindsay VanHulle

Crain’s Detroit Business/Bridge Magazine

Working to fight Detroit’s problems

through a new festival app available for $10, a new e-store in the works and a new permanent endowment push launched in early March, it is banking on continued Gretchen Valade: support from its Supports annual largest benefacfestival. tor. The relationship paints a picture of the big benefits and big pitfalls of having a prominent patron.

LANSING — A week or so ago, Dave Arland took a call from someone who wanted to set up a meeting. The caller asked for the current time in Indiana. Keep in mind, it’s been more than 10 years since Indiana began changing its clocks twice a year like most of the rest of the country. The questions haven’t yet stopped. It’s March, the time of year when we push clocks forward an hour and routinely At a glance question the wisdom of doRep. Peter Lucido, R-Shelby Township, ing so. Michigan is introduced House one of at least Bill 4011 , which as 16 state legiswritten exempts latures that Michigan from have seen as observing Daylight Saving Time. Lucido many as 24 introsaid he has drafted bills duced dealing a revised version with Daylight that would move Saving Time so Michigan far this year, permanently onto according to a Daylight Saving recent post Time. from the National Conference of State Legislatures. They get attention, but rarely pass. Supporters of a bill in the Michigan House say time changes are inconvenient and harmful to sleep rhythms and worker productivity and general health. But that doesn’t mean they’re good for business, if you ask Michigan’s neighbor to the south, where businesspeople say being out of sync with the rest of the country brought a host of headaches. Until 2006, the majority of Indiana counties in the Eastern Time Zone stayed put while nearly every other state sprang forward and fell back. That meant most of Indiana spent winters following New York’s clock and summers on Chicago time. “Caveat emptor, that would be my advice,” said Arland, executive director of the Indiana Broadcasters Association. Buyer beware. “If you’re not careful,” he added, “you’ll be an island, and people will never know what time it is in Michigan.”

SEE FESTIVAL, PAGE 17

SEE TIME, PAGE 17

CHAD LIVENGOOD/CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

Darreaux Waddell, archivist for Detroit Public Schools Community District, instructs volunteers from Quicken Loans on which documents from former student files they can purge as part of a large-scale digitization project.

Employees of Gilbert companies tackle projects including digitizing old DPS records, blight fight By Chad Livengood clivengood@crain.com

At a stuffy Detroit Public Schools warehouse east of downtown, up to 20 Quicken Loans employees are rifling through old records four mornings a week to help the city’s school system digitize decades of student records. It’s an example of an effort coordinated by a team of Rock Ventures

employees with backgrounds in philanthropy and government exploring new ways to work “upstream” in fixing Detroit’s most vexing problems — from preventing further blight to creating jobs for Detroiters outside of their own company. They’re operating a small under-the-radar think tank of sorts, trying to find ways to go beyond the

$17 million Dan Gilbert’s family of companies plans to spend on philanthropy in Detroit this year. The group is treading far outside of the sphere of selling mortgages, managing downtown properties and writing checks to local charities. “We have a different DNA. It’s not your traditional corporate philanthropy,” said Chris Uhl, vice

president of community initiatives at Rock Ventures. Uhl’s group is working on a proposal to change the way municipal government is financed and has hired an outside firm to study whether investors would buy social impact bonds to fund blight prevention initiatives in Detroit. Social impact bonds have been SEE PROJECTS, PAGE 18

Culture

Jazz Fest sees benefits, pitfalls of prominent patron By Sherri Welch swelch@crain.com

The Detroit Jazz Festival is the world’s largest free jazz event.

MUST READS OF THE WEEK

The Detroit Jazz Festival, the world’s largest free jazz event, and its yearround programs have survived for the past 12 years largely on the generosity of Carhartt heiress and philanthropist Gretchen Valade. In recent years, her support has made up about half of the organization’s annual budget and made up for shortages in sponsorship revenue, other donations and vending revenue. It’s a donor relationship that can’t continue forever — or can it? Even as the festival continues to seek alternate sources of revenue

Candice Miller’s new niche Former congresswoman settles in as Macomb public works commissioner, won’t rule out run for governor, Page 6

The Joe’s controversial birth Other Voices: How Coleman Young got the arena started without a net, Page 7

C R A I N ’ S D E T R O I T B U S I N E S S // M A R C H 2 7 , 2 0 1 7

Meeting of meats: Grobbel to acquire maker of Sy Ginsberg corned beef By Sherri Welch swelch@crain.com

MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR EDITORIAL COVERAGE IN CRAIN’S kbora@crain.com • (212) 210- 0750

with custom

Reprints, nts E-prior e! and m

TOP GRADUATE PROGRAMS Set yourself apart Separate yourself from the crowd by earning a graduate degree from Grand Valley. With 38 master’s and doctoral programs, we offer the degree you need to advance your career, increase earnings, and enhance your job satisfaction. Programs deliver a unique blend of theoretical knowledge, practical experience, and professional networking here in West Michigan that no other university can match. And, you’ll benefit from Grand Valley’s respected reputation among employers, convenient campuses, affordable tuition, and diverse educational opportunities. Set yourself apart. Contact The Graduate School at (616) 331-7105 or gradschool@gvsu.edu for more information or help getting started. Spring classes start May 2017.

gvsu.edu/gs

E.W. Grobbel Sons Inc. is acquiring fellow Detroit corned beef company United Meat and Deli Inc. for an undisclosed amount in a transaction set to close Friday. The merger of the two will create a company with $110 million in annual revenue with more than 200 employees (it rises in the runup to St. Patrick’s Day). Grobbel plans to use its processing capacity and logistical strength to take United’s premium Sy Ginsberg brand corned beef and other meat products and the deli items it sources and distributes — bacon, ham, New York rye bread, Dr. Brown’s Soda, frozen matzo balls and other products — to new customers in the deli and retail segments around the country. United’s founder Sy Ginsberg and his business partner Scott Mendelsohn will continue to oversee the business, serving as executive vice president and vice president of sales, respectively, for the United Meat and Deli DiviSy Ginsberg: Will sion. continue to The two comoversee business. panies are merging for competitive efficiencies gained through cost-savings on things like transporting both companies’ products on the same trucks to points around the country, said Jason Grobbel, president of E.W. Grobbel Sons. “We’re strong in Irish American corned beef, and they’re strong in the Jewish American corned beef. Together, we cover the whole spectrum,” he said. “We’re excited to take this to the next level. Their skills and abilities ... and our team ... are a quite strong, amazing force in the food business.” Grobbel, the larger of the two companies, was in business 100 years before United’s 1983 launch. It’s one Jason Grobbel: of the largest Sells corned beef corned beef proto grocers. cessors in the country, selling Grobbel’s corned beef to grocers including Walmart, Sam’s Club, Publix and, through co-packing agreements, to Kroger and Meijer for products sold under their store brands. It had $70 million in sales last year and employs 180 generally but brings an additional 70 people on during the run-up to St Patrick’s Day. United, conversely, has sold primarily into the deli, restaurant and food service markets. Locally, customers include Zingerman’s, Mudgie’s, Bread Basket, Russell Street

UNITED MEAT AND DELI INC.

A sandwich made with United Meat and Deli’s Sy Ginsberg brand corned beef. Deli and Stage Deli, and some retail customers like Kroger, Busch’s and Holiday Market. Nationally, its customers include Sysco, U.S. Foods and smaller distributors supplying delis and restaurants. Last year its sales were $40 million, with distribution of products sourced from other companies accounting for about a quarter of that. “That’s one of the reasons why we’re so excited about this merger,” Ginsberg, 72, said. “Our strength is their weakness and vice versa, so this is going to be a real good blend.”

“We’re strong in Irish American corned beef, and they’re strong in the Jewish American corned beef. Together, we cover the whole spectrum.” Jason Grobbel, president of E.W. Grobbel Sons

It had become apparent over the last four or five years that it was time to sell the company because United had run out of space at its 28,000-square-foot southwest Detroit operation. As a result, it had been forced to outsource parts of its operations, turning to Alexander & Hornung in St. Clair Shores and another company in Ohio to help cook meats and Chicago Meat Authority in Illinois for help in trimming meat. That had been frustrating, Ginsberg said, because United didn’t like to cede control of any part of its processing operation. Several large companies from other states had approached United with offers, and they all looked good on paper, Ginsberg said. But selling to them would have meant production would be moved to another state. “We never wanted to do that. ... We’re hometown people,” he said,

with some employees who have been with the company for 25 or more years. lt’s been thrilling to see some of United’s Hispanic employees become U.S. citizens, raise families and send their kids on to college, he said. “To uproot that whole situation was not anything we ever wanted to do, even though we were locked in on space for a while.” United has also maintained a culture of being very involved in its customers’ businesses, Ginsberg said, noting that Zingerman’s Founder Paul Saginaw often introduces him as the first person to ever make a Zingerman’s sandwich. United has been Zingerman’s only meat processor since the day it opened its doors, he said. All employees will remain with the merged company. The heads of the two companies had met previously, but it wasn’t until a mutual friend suggested it last fall that the two began talking about combining their operations. Grobbel said he’s always admired Ginsberg and Mendelsohn. “I’ve tried to model myself after them … in terms of the ethical way they do business, the humility.” Birmingham-based Williams, Williams, Ratner & Plunkett P.C. and Carabell, Leslie and Co. P.C. in Mt. Clemens advised Grobbel. United’s attorneys at Maddin, Hauser, Roth & Heller P.C. in Southfield advised it in the deal. Grobbel plans to gradually move United’s production to its newly expanded campus in Eastern Market. It invested $5 million in new processing systems and expanded its footprint into an adjacent building last fall, giving it a total of 55,000 square feet. United’s southwest Detroit building will continue to operate as a distribution site. (Ginsberg is father of Crain’s Special Projects Editor Amy Elliott Bragg, who was not involved in reporting or editing this story.) Sherri Welch: 313-446-1694 Twitter: @SherriWelch

C R A I N â&#x20AC;&#x2122; S D E T R O I T B U S I N E S S // M A R C H 2 7 , 2 0 1 7

Blue Cross CEO Loepp, company PAC push Duggan re-election By Jay Greene jgreene@crain.com

At a company meeting this month at the MotorCity Casino, CEO Dan Loepp of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan asked more than 1,000 Blue Cross employees to donate to and otherwise support the re-election of Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan. Loeppâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s personal support for Duggan wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t a surprise to Blue Cross employees. But it was unusual and possibly violated Blue Crossâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; own corporate code of business conduct for a Blues executive to make a pitch for a political candidate at a company-sponsored event. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a sign of strong corporate support for Duggan, who has made one of his hallmarks a push to make Detroit an easier city in which to do business, but has left him open to criticism as too tight with corporate interests. Employees â&#x20AC;&#x153;may not use any company property, facilities or time of any other workforce member for any political activity. Workforce members involved in political activities should do so outside of working hours,â&#x20AC;? Blue Crossâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; conduct code reads. Blue Cross employees are allowed to â&#x20AC;&#x153;participate in the political processâ&#x20AC;? but should make it clear they are acting as an individual and not acting on behalf of the company, the conduct code states. In an email to Crainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, Helen Stojic, Blue Crossâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; director of corporate affairs, said â&#x20AC;&#x153;there was a very brief reminder (by Loepp) to a PAC-eligible audience of an invitation that was sent to PAC members. BluesPAC sees nothing that would preclude this type of communication.â&#x20AC;? Stojic declined further comment when asked if Loepp or Blue Cross executives ever made public statements at company events to support political candidates. The day after the company event March 16, employee members of BluesPAC, Blue Crossâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; political action committee, received a company-addressed email from the Duggan For Detroit campaign, asking Blue Cross employees for additional donations of â&#x20AC;&#x153;$25, $50 or $100 or more today to show your early support for Mayor Duggan.â&#x20AC;? The e-mail came from Rico Razo, Dugganâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s campaign manager. Stojic explained that the Duggan campaign asked BluesPAC for email addresses of BluesPAC members, who are also a majority of Blue Cross

Mike Duggan: Seeking re-election as mayor.

Dan Loepp: Urged support for Duggan.

employees. BluesPAC regularly sends out mail and emails on its own to members requesting donations and support for political candidates or causes. â&#x20AC;&#x153;If you provided it (email) you probably got a subsequent solicitation email from the campaign,â&#x20AC;? Stojic said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;However, this email was not directed specifically to BCBSM employees.â&#x20AC;? Last month, on Feb. 28, more than 1,000 Blue Cross employees who also are members of BluesPAC also received a letter in the mail asking for donations of $1,000 for corporate officers, $500 for vice presidents, $250 for directors and $100 from managers and others to support the Mike Duggan for Detroit Committee. BluesPAC also invited its members to a reception it is hosting Tuesday at the Firebird Tavern in Detroitâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Greektown. In a statement to Crainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, Jeffrey Rumley, chair of BluesPAC and also Blue Crossâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; general counsel, said this: â&#x20AC;&#x153;BluesPAC members are proud to come together to support Mayor Dugganâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s re-election. He has done tremendous work leading Detroitâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s comeback, mobilizing business and community leaders to work together for a better Detroit.â&#x20AC;? As one of the stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest nonprofit PACs, BluesPac had a balance of $240,892 at the end of January while expending about $66,000 during the month, according to the Michigan Secretary of Stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s office. Besides Blue Cross employees, organizations such as the Detroit Regional Chamber and Friends of Warren C. Evans contributed to BluesPAC. Members totaled 2,036 last year, down from a high of 2,325 in 2009. BluesPAC contributed $30,000 to Dugganâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s campaign last October and December. Jay Greene: (313) 446-0325, Twitter: @jaybgreene

Lear to work on program in Wyoming Lear Corp. was selected to work with the Wyoming Department of Transportation on a pilot program to improve road safety, the automotive supplier announced Monday. The Southfield-based company will supply technologies that will allow WYDOT to test and collect data on connected vehicle systems. Lear will provide technologies that

will allow vehicles to communicate with other vehicles and avoid accidents, and vehicle-to-infrastructure technologies, which will allow vehicles to communicate with roadside infrastructure to respond to different weather conditions. Learâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s acquisition of Arada Systems Inc. in 2015 helped beef up its connectivity offerings.

7DOHQW ZLWK 3XUSRVHÂ&#x152;

5HFHQW 6XFFHVVHV

([HFXWLYH 6HDUFK 3DUWQHUV %HDXPRQW +RVSLWDO )RXQGDWLRQ Ć&#x2021; (TXDOLW\ 0LFKLJDQ )UHG $ DQG %DUEDUD 0 (UE )DPLO\ )RXQGDWLRQ )ULHQGV RI WKH 5RXJH Ć&#x2021; 0DNH $ :LVK 0LFKLJDQ 0D[ 0 0DUMRULH 6 )LVKHU )RXQGDWLRQ Ć&#x2021; 0LFKLJDQ 6WDWH %DU )RXQGDWLRQ 5DOSK & :LOVRQ -U )RXQGDWLRQ Ć&#x2021; 8QLWHG :D\ IRU 6( 0LFKLJDQ

&RQVXOWLQJ 3DUWQHUV $XWLVP $OOLDQFH RI 0, Ć&#x2021; 'HWURLW 0HWUR &RQYHQWLRQ DQG 9LVLWRUV %XUHDX 5RQDOG 0F'RQDOG +RXVH RI 'HWURLW

)RFXV 2Q

([HFXWLYH 6HDUFK Ć&#x2021; 6XFFHVVLRQ 3ODQQLQJ Ć&#x2021; 7DOHQW 'HYHORSPHQW K 6 L 3O L 7O *DU\ 'HPEV Â˛ &(2 JDU\ GHPEV#QSSQ FR _ ZZZ QSSQ FR

Ulliance specializes in high-impact training customized to your needs. An informed workforce makes your organization more effective, efficient, and financially competitive.

Organizational development and training that offers:

â&#x20AC;˘ Instructional designers and trainers with advanced degrees. â&#x20AC;˘ Training sessions that integrate discussion, experiential exercises and roleplay, all customized to your specific industry and using real-life examples.

â&#x20AC;˘ On-site training that can range from just one hour to multiple days, based on your needs.

â&#x20AC;˘ Leadership and Executive Coaching. â&#x20AC;˘ Employee LifeCycle Engagement Surveys. â&#x20AC;˘ Team Building and Development.

Contact Ulliance at 866-648-8326 or www.ulliance.com

C R A I N ’ S D E T R O I T B U S I N E S S // M A R C H 2 7 , 2 0 1 7

Impact100 gives busy women a way to help nonprofits

OPINION

Miller settles in after going home

t is a Saturday morning in Washington in the spring of 2015, and Candice Miller is talking to herself. After casting votes late into a Friday night, the popular congresswoman from suburban Detroit briefly considers remaining in Washington for the weekend. “No, I just gotta go home,” she mutters. “Geez, this place.” Washington is the pits. After 12 years in office, Miller misses her family and is tired of the senseless grind. So she heads home — but for more than the one weekend. Settling into her airplane seat on that fateful Saturday morning, the St. Clair Shores native flips over some congressional paperwork and writes these words on the back: “This is a community that I love, that I call home, and at the conclusion of my current term of office, I will be coming home. I will not be seeking re-election.” Miller shared this memory with me last week, when I visited her at the Macomb County Public Works Department, where she serves as commissioner, the job she ran for and won after leaving Congress. I was curious about why she traded the gilded halls of Congress for the sewage lines of Macomb County. “When I went (to Washington) initially, I never thought I would stay there as long as I did. I know everybody says that and I think everybody means it, but I tell you, it’s very insidious,” Miller told me. “Whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, you get there, and pretty soon you’re a chairman or you’re this or you’re that, and you think, ‘I can’t leave this time, I have to run again,’ and next thing you know, you have been there 30 years.” Miller asked how long I had lived in Washington, covering politics, before moving home to Detroit last fall. Twenty-three years, I replied. But it seems like 30. No matter how well I did my job, I wasn’t making an impact. I wasn’t making the system better. Miller nodded. “In the Congress, you have this huge anthill and you've got to get all the ants to try and charge up to the top of the hill. A lot of them keep peeling off, so it’s difficult,” she sighed.

RON FOURNIER Editor/Publisher

After announcing her congressional departure, Miller rejected several offers to join lobbying groups and trade associations in Washington. She considered one private sector offer “pretty darn seriously” before turning it down. “I know this might not sound sincere, but I mean it: At 62 years old, I don’t really need a bigger paycheck,” she chuckled. What she needed was a job where she could make a difference. Strangely, her mind kept turning to the Macomb County drain commissioner — a job, she said, that fit her passions for clean lakes and economic growth. Also, she had heard rumors of corruption at the public works department under six-term Democratic incumbent Anthony Marrocco. One day, she met Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel at a Bob Evans not far from Marrocco’s office. Sipping coffee, Hackel pitched several job opportunities to his old friend. She rejected each one. “If I’m going to do anything,” Miller told Hackel, “I am going to run against Marrocco.” “If you do that,” Hackel replied, “I’ll endorse you.” Miller laughed. She’s a Republican, and Hackel, like Marrocco, is a Democrat. Surely he wasn’t serious. Hackel said he was. With his endorsement, Miller beat Marrocco by 8 percentage points. On her first day at work, she ordered “a couple of big guys down the hall” to remove a symbol of Marrocco’s pay-toplay culture: an enormous conference room table. “I wish I had a dollar for every contractor that said every time they walked into this room, their permits were on one end of the conference table and the fundraising tickets were on the

LARRY PEPLIN

Drain Commissioner Candice Miller would not rule out running for governor in 2018.

other.” Business, she said, is now different in Macomb County. Public works projects are competitively bid and transparent. The county’s 700-plus public drains are being inspected. Its below-ground infrastructure will be audited and put on a long-term maintenance schedule. Miller inherited the sinkhole in Fraser, the latest sign of a crumbling system. She vowed to fix the troubled sewage line for good. “My successor is not going to be standing in a sinkhole at 15 Mile Road 10 years from now.” Turning the conversation back to Washington, the town we just left, I asked Miller about President Donald Trump’s proposed budget cuts to programs that keep the Great Lakes clean. A bad idea, she said. Then I asked the typical Washington question: Is this your last public office? “I don’t know,” she said. “I really don’t know.” Any chance you’ll run for governor in 2018? “I just got into this job,” she said. “But who knows, right?” She left the door open, so I pressed. “I am very satisfied with where I am because I have a lot of things going, and we’re really doing well here,” she said. “I know people always ask those questions, but I don’t really see it.” “But we will see. Who knows?”

ow’s your oxytocin level? Until March 8, I didn’t know oxytocin, the hormone, from OxyContin, the powerful pain relief drug that is often linked to prescription drug abuse. At an event on March 8 created by Crain’s and United Way for Southeastern Michigan, Wendy Steele described the power of oxytocin, which helps moms bond with their new babies or rewards “givers” when they act in a generous fashion. There must have been a lot of oxytocin floating around that morning: the 250 women who attended were in- MARY KRAMER spired to contrib- Group Publisher ute, collectively, more than Mary Kramer is group publisher and $70,000 to ear- Ron Fournier is editor and publisher of ly-childhood ini- Crain’s Detroit Business. Catch them tiatives by the end at 6:10 a.m. Mondays on the Paul W. of the day. Smith show on WJR AM 760. Steele’s consulting business, Generosity Matters, helps organizations, large or small, build cultures of generosity in ways that benefit employees, their families, their communities and, of course, their employers. So how did a former banker get into philanthropy? Working for a bank in Cincinnati after 9/11, she had an epiphany: A lot of women like her had busy careers and families, without a lot of “extra” time to volunteer. How could they really feel part of giving back in a way that made a difference? Her elegantly simple solution: pull together at least 100 women who could write a check for $1,000 apiece to create a $100,000 kitty. Members would then vote to award the lump sum to a nonprofit they deemed most worthy. Impact100 was born. It has grown to more than 40 chapters, including Oakland County, where its current president, Ginny Fischbach, imported the idea from Alabama, where she has a second home. Impact100 Oakland gave its first $100,000 grant last year to VARIETY-the Children’s Charity for a program than ensures low-income children in the Pontiac schools eat on weekends. Nearly 40 nonprofits applied. Amy Tattrie Loepp, the Oakland chapter’s treasurer, told me last year that what appealed to her about the Impact100 model was “doing something beyond serving on boards.” It’s the engagement — reviewing the pitches from nonprofits looking for money and then voting on to whom the grant should be given — that really makes the model different. The Oakland chapter hopes to double the size of its grant and make two $100,000 grants in 2017. But the chapter is accepting new members only through March 31. For more information, check the website, www.impact100oaklandcounty.org, or email Impact100oc@ gmail.com.

Be nice, it’s good business Have you ever noticed that you tend to gravitate to the folks who happen to be nice? It seems like Basic Business 101: We should be nice to our customers. But I am amazed at the number of times I am made to feel I’m intruding on a person’s time when all I want to do is buy something, Whether I am ordering a meal in an expensive restaurant or trying to buy a car, I often am ignored by a salesperson.

KEITH CRAIN Editor-in-chief

And I watch that salesperson ignore

the other potential customers around me. It is no wonder to me why some people are naturals at selling. One secret — not a secret at all — is how they treat their customers. Granted, plenty of products and services are complicated and sometimes difficult to explain. But the same basic tools work everywhere. Be nice and listen to what the customer has to say.

I often kiddingly tell our own sales folks that they should listen and, when they get the order, it is time to shut up. I see folks who keep selling long after I have agreed to buy. That can be frustrating as well. But we know we all return to a salesperson who treats us well. Rick Greer, who worked for Automotive News for many years, used to show up at a customer’s office first thing in the morning with dough-

nuts and coffee. He was one of the best. Small things but with a big impact. If you want your company to do well, make sure that your sales folks know the basics. There are lots of great sales schools that can remind your sales force of those basics. But you have to practice the basics to be good. It is not that hard to outsell your competition. Be nice and listen.

C R A I N ’ S D E T R O I T B U S I N E S S // M A R C H 2 7 , 2 0 1 7

Without a net: ‘The Joe’ had bold, controversial start As the Detroit Red Wings prepare to play their final game in Joe Louis Arena on April 9, many fans are viewing “the Joe” with nostalgia as the longtime home of the team they root for so fervently. Forgotten in the haze of history is just how controversial Joe Louis Arena was at its beginning and how close the Red Wings came to leaving the city. At the time, Mayor Coleman Young started construction of the new arena even though he didn’t have a contract with a team to play in it — and even though he didn’t have financing in place to pay for it or architectural plans to complete it. In fact, the Red Wings had announced an agreement to move to a proposed new stadium, to be named Olympia II, in honor of the team’s old arena. It was to be built next door to the Silverdome in Pontiac. With the Lions and Pistons already having left the city, Mayor Young felt it was critical to the city’s future to keep the Red Wings here in Detroit. So he took $5 million in federal public works money and started digging a hole just west of Cobo Hall. As he explained in his autobiography, “We couldn’t afford to wait for a commitment from a tenant before we started digging because the delay would cause us to lose our leverage and our federal money, which came with a deadline attached for beginning construction.” There was a great deal of controversy at the time. The newspapers, members of the Detroit City Council and other critics were beating the mayor up pretty badly. How, they demanded, can you start building an arena without a team to play in it, without financing and without architectural plans? All this came in 1977 in the middle of the mayor’s first re-election campaign. At the time he was considered vulnerable, running against popular City Council President Ernie Brown. One day in the heat of the controversy, staffer Bill Ciluffo, who was handling the Joe Louis Arena issue, got a call from Bob Millender, a key political adviser to the mayor. Millender told him a new poll showed the issue was hurting Mayor Young badly. Indeed, Millender was worried it could lose him the election. Bill went in to tell the mayor about the call. The mayor paused for a minute, and then in true Mayor Young fashion, said, “---- the poll.” As the controversy continued to swirl, Red Wings owner Bruce Norris sent a letter to the mayor, which became public, detailing the reasons why he was not interested in a downtown arena. Critics cited the letter as another example of how misguided the mayor’s efforts were. But Mayor Young thought the letter showed promise, thinking why would Norris bother to spell out his objections if he had no interest in negotiating with the city? Sure enough, at the urging of two local business leaders — retailer Max Pincus and Fisher Theatre impresario Joey Nederlander — Red Wings General Manager Lincoln Cavalieri called the mayor’s office

OTHER VOICES Bob Berg

Berg is a founding partner of, and of counsel to, Van Dyke Horn, formerly Berg Muirhead and Associates. He served as the senior public affairs adviser first to Gov. William Milliken and then to Detrot Mayor Coleman A. Young.

and asked for a meeting. That afternoon, Mayor Young and Cavalieri worked out the deal that kept the Red Wings in Detroit and gave the city a ticket surcharge to enable it to pay for the arena’s construction. With the agreement completed, the city raised the funds to complete the Joe by tripling its original grant through the U.S. Housing and Community Development Act and borrowing another $38 million against block grants that would be issued to the city in the future. It was an incredible, and ultimately successful, roll of the dice. Today, the Red Wings are prepar-

Longtime Detroit Mayor Coleman Young started work on Joe Louis Arena with no team to play in it, no financing and no architectural plans.

ing for their move to Little Caesars Arena, the Pistons are moving back downtown, the Lions are back in Detroit, and the Tigers average more than 30,000 a game at Comerica Park. One can only wonder how dif-

10% SAVINGS When your business is more energy efficient, it’s also more profitable—and DTE Energy wants to help make that happen. Take John Logiudice, owner of Florentine Pizzeria, for example. DTE worked with him to make some small changes that led to big savings. Simply installing a programmable thermostat, sink aerators, LED lights and a prerinse spray valve in the kitchen saved John around 10% a month on his energy bill. If you’d like to manage energy use to save money at your business, visit dteenergy.com/savenow.

ferent things would be in Detroit today if Coleman Young had not taken a chance and started work on an arena with no team to play in it, no financing to pay for it and no architectural plans to build it.

C R A I N ’ S D E T R O I T B U S I N E S S // M A R C H 2 7 , 2 0 1 7

SPECIAL REPORT: LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

Future stock

Robert Dutkiewicz, president of Southfield-based accounting firm Clayton & McKervey PC, and Denise Asker, director of marketing. Asker runs the company’s leadership training program.

PHOTO BY LARRY PEPLIN

How companies groom and train new leaders By Rachelle Damico

Special to Crain’s Detroit Business

Every company needs to think about how to develop its next generation of leaders. The key is to have practices, procedures and programs in place — it’s not going to happen organically. “You need to have a very mindful and intentional program for recruiting and retaining the next generation of leaders so your organization is sustainable,” said Todd Sachse, CEO of Detroit-based Sachse Construction and Development Co. LLC. Detroit-based law firm Clark Hill PLC has a professional development department specifically tasked with training and developing its attorneys. “The goal is to hire and retain the most qualified and the best talent that we can,” said Jennifer Sarhaddi, manager of professional development. Training and developing the future leaders of a company is an investment — not something that happens overnight. “There’s a whole bunch of talented individuals who can develop into those leadership positions, but it takes time to help them develop their skills and put them in the best position to go

ahead and lead,” said Robert Dutkiewicz, president of Southfield-based accounting firm Clayton & McKervey PC. For advice and tips on how to implement a leadership program, Crain’s talked to companies about how they groom and develop the future leaders of their companies.

Mentoring Having a mentoring program in place ensures employees benefit from the knowledge and experience of more senior people at the company. Mentoring is a critical aspect in the training and development of attorneys at Clark Hill. The law firm employs 630 and generated $151.5 million in revenue last year. Sarhaddi said senior attorneys are required to bring junior attorneys to client meetings, help them generate new business, and bring newer attorneys to community and client functions. “It’s incumbent upon senior attorneys to bring others underneath their wing and to be a very hands-on mentor,” Sarhaddi said. Mentoring was also an important aspect in Dutkiewicz’s transition into his role as president of Clayton & McKervey. The accounting firm

employs 75 and made $12 million in revenue in 2016. Dutkiewicz said he often had daily mentoring time with the company’s former president Kevin McKervey. The pair made time to discuss the transition plan and issues that would come up within the company. “Probably the greatest training I had was Kevin’s personal attention,” Dutkiewicz said. Dutkiewicz said he was in process of transitioning for the role when McKervey died unexpectedly in March 2016. The personal coaching time with McKervey helped Dutkiewicz prepare for the sudden transition, he said. Within eight hours of his death, the entire ownership team had a written plan. Employees were briefed, and clients were notified with personal phone calls and other methods of outreach. “That was extremely important because the day after his passing, we had immediately went into conversations with our staff about how we were continuing to service clients and that nothing had changed despite (Kevin’s) sudden departure,” Dutkiewicz said. SEE TRAINING, PAGE 9

Sachse Construction: Millennials mentor baby boomer generation Detroit-based Sachse Construction and Development Co. LLC has a mentoring program Todd Sachse calls “reverse mentoring,” where millennials mentor the baby boomer generation on how to improve the company. “I’ve always felt that you need to have representation from every decade,” Todd Sachse, Todd Sachse: CEO said. “You can Learn from each learn from each other other equally. equally.” Sachse is also mentored by a millennial. A recent mentoring session covered work-life balance — whether millennials live to work or work to live. At that meeting, Sachse said he learned millennials work hardest when they know their work has meaning. SEE SACHSE, PAGE 9

C R A I N ’ S D E T R O I T B U S I N E S S // M A R C H 2 7 , 2 0 1 7

SPECIAL REPORT: LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

TRAINING FROM PAGE 8

Career path management A career path plan is crucial for employee development and helps encourage employees to move on to leadership roles within an organization. When Sachse Construction hires new college graduates, they work in different departments to see where they are most comfortable. The construction and development company has about 150 employees and generated $174 million in revenue last year. The company’s portfolio includes some of the Detroit area’s biggest projects, including Nike stores, additions to the Detroit Athletic Club and Meridian Plan’s headquarters. Sachse employees sketch out where they’d like to see themselves within the company in one, five and 10 years. Then they’re assigned a mentor and follow a formal, written career management path plan. The company is in the process of expanding the career path management to include all employees. “This gives them the opportunity to better understand how a construction company works and to discover where their interests lie within the company,” Sachse said. Sachse said it also helps the company prepare to fill positions as they become available. “It’s their responsibility to always be training their replacement,” Sachse said. “That’s the key thing. As the CEO, if I drop dead tomorrow, who would fill my shoes?”

Performance reviews Performance reviews help track an employee’s development and progress and determine if employees are right for a leadership role. Clark Hill requires attorneys to complete performance evaluations that examine how they are developing in various aspects necessary to excel at the firm, such as leadership and management skills. Attorneys are evaluated twice a year to review their performance and set goals they plan to achieve before their next review. Then they meet with practice group leaders and directors for areas where attorneys need improvement.

SACHSE FROM PAGE 8

“They love to work and will work their butt off as long as they believe the company they work for has a greater purpose,” Sachse said. “They really want to understand your purpose and your vision — how this will affect daily life, society and the community,” he said. “They want to believe in that and be a part of that.” Sachse said these mentoring efforts have played a part in attracting

Clark Hill: Department trains future leaders By Rachelle Damico

Special to Crain’s Detroit Business

Detroit-based Clark Hill PLC has a professional development department specifically tasked with developing the law firm’s attorneys throughout their careers. Jennifer Sarhaddi, who works out of the firm’s Chicago office, is in charge of managing and supporting the development of Jennifer Sarhaddi: Have a the firm’s senior attorneys and team to recruit associates. and retain. “To be successful as a firm, it’s of utmost importance to have a talent management team that works to recruit and retain employees, and to create an environment and a culture where your employees know that you’re investing in them, helping them put their best foot forward and to grow and develop as professionals,” Sarhaddi said.

Internal training and workshops

The professional development department has practical and substantive skills training programs that help attorneys advance within the firm. Training includes intensive legal writing, business development, negotiation skills, critical thinking skills and successful communication with internal and external clients. In addition, attorneys are required to participate in an annual series of courses. The topics are refined each year, but include ethics and economics of the law. Attorneys looking to develop their management and leadership skills at the firm have their own set of courses. Speakers have visited the firm to discuss new and creative ways to approach the practice of law. Last year, courses focused on subjects such as assembling and managing teams and leadership practices. “We want to make sure they’re given the skills and the access they need at each step in their career,” Sarhaddi said. “Lawyers have to refine their skills and stay current on legal trends to survive and thrive in a competitive legal market.” assigns employees technical and leadership training that must be satisfied within a given year. This helps employees hone their skills. Employees also participate in conferences, off-site learning activities, daily mentoring and in-house coaching. “As you grow through the organization, there’s a lot of opportunities to develop leadership skills,” said Dutkiewicz. “We have built our organization for eternal succession.”

In-house leadership development programs help employees improve their management skills. Sachse Construction has a workshop called “Opening Doors” where middle managers are taught how to take the next step in leadership and enhance their management skills. Todd Sachse said that the workshop involves activities such as role playing, leadership management techniques and self-guided assessments. “It invests in developing the leadership skills of our middle managers, who are on the frontline of managing our people on a day-to-day basis,” Sachse said. “We are giving them the resources both to help our team members excel and (to) grow our company.” Clayton & McKervey has a young leadership training program that begins before employees are even managers. The accounting firm has a leadership development committee that

Another way to develop leaders is to ensure they’re given the opportunity to participate in workshops and trainings outside of the company and to network and learn at conferences. Sachse Construction sends managers to several conferences throughout the year. Recently, four managers were sent to the Young Presidents’ Organization’s construction conference in San Francisco to learn how to be a good leader and how to inspire others.

and retaining better talent. A third of the company’s employees are millennials. “They are going to be the people that are going to be running the company in the future,” Sachse said. “If you’re not listening to them and learning from them, you’re going to lose them.” “They love to work and will work their butt off as long as they believe the company they work for has a greater purpose,” Sachse said. “They really want to understand your purpose as your vision — how

this will affect daily life, society and the community,” he said. “They want to believe in that and be a part of that.” Sachse said these mentoring efforts have played a part in attracting and retaining better talent. A third of the company’s employees are millennials. “They are going to be the people that are going to be running the company in the future,” Sachse said. “If you’re not listening to them and learning from them, you’re going to lose them.”

External workshops and conferences

More than 100 different companies from around the country went to the event. “There’s deeper knowledge out there. We’re not experts at everything,” Sachse said. Detroit Economic Club has a young leaders program where participants under the age of 40 are invited to meet prominent CEOs. President and CEO Beth Chappell said the program provides a rare opportunity for access to top business leaders, who offer the attendees career-shaping advice. “(Attendees) interact with a global CEO who has insight that most folks don’t have access to,” Chappell said. “It provides such rich connections for young leaders.” Past speakers have included Bill Ford Jr., executive chairman of the Ford Motor Co., Chris Ilitch, president and CEO of Ilitch Holdings, and Irma Elder, CEO of Elder Automotive Group. The young leadership program is exclusive to DEC members, and is limited to 50 people per session.

Community engagement Community engagement can help future leaders of the company expand their existing knowledge and skills. Clayton & McKervey’s employees are encouraged to run certain committees, initiatives and perform other

civic duties or board positions. “Those are all important elements in developing leadership skills, because you have to work through teams, and quite often you have to promote ideas and execute,” Dutkiewicz said. “It also exposes you to a variety of different community leaders.” Clark Hill offers its attorneys a nonprofit board fundamentals course to help prepare them for board service in their local communities. “A very critical aspect is making sure people are going out and extending themselves beyond the workplace, reaching back into their communities and bringing their skills to play in the communities in which they’re living,” Sarhaddi said.

Feedback To support an employee’s development, ensure they’re given feedback. Sachse Construction collects anonymous feedback on team members from a group of 12-15 people. That group includes managers, subordinates and clients. Todd Sachse calls it “360” feedback. “A lot of times people only get feedback from their supervisor, but people have different interactions,” Sachse said. “Your supervisor isn’t going to judge how well you’re leading as much as the people you’re leading.”

C R A I N ’ S D E T R O I T B U S I N E S S // M A R C H 2 7 , 2 0 1 7

Humble Design, U-Haul to take aid concept into new markets By Sherri Welch swelch@crain.com

Sometimes there’s a perfect fit between a company’s assets and a nonprofit’s needs. Pontiac-based Humble Design and U-Haul International Inc. have found that. They’re leveraging space at U-Haul self-storage facilities and its trucks to take Humble Design’s design and home furnishing assistance to formerly homeless people into nine new markets by 2020, starting with Chicago. From there, Humble Design plans to move into Seattle. And it’s looking at other markets with significant homeless populations including Boston, Philadelphia and New York. Great fits between a company’s operations and nonprofit needs aren’t unheard of. For example, Taylor-based building materials supplier Masco Corp. has donated materials to support Habitat for Humanity, and automotive seating supplier Adient PLC, the former seating division of Johnson Controls Inc., has donated its Six Sigma expertise and an idle as-

Treger Strasberg: Shelters begging for this kind of help.

Rob Strasberg: Those helped feel sense of ownership.

sembly line to World Medical Relief to improve its operational efficiencies. But the relationship between Humble Design and U-Haul is innovative in that it’s enabling the nonprofit to scale its operations nationally, said Kyle Caldwell, executive director of the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids. Rather than building warehouse space and acquiring additional trucks after raising the money to do so, and then having to carry the costs of maintaining those, Humble Design is using what U-Haul already has.

A F e e - O n l y We a l t h M a n a g e m e n t G r o u p

Michigan’s #1 Financial Advisor* Charles C. Zhang CFP®, MBA, MSFS, ChFC, CLU Managing Partner

Charles has been ranked in the top 10 on Barron’s list of Top 100 Independent Financial Advisors for 2015 and 2016, and is currently the highest ranking fee-only NAPFA-Registered Financial Advisor on the list.**

We Uphold a Fiduciary Standard 101 West Big Beaver Road 14th Floor Troy, MI 48084 (248) 687-1258 or (888) 777-0126

www.zhangfinancial.com Assets under custody of LPL Financial and TD Ameritrade. *As reported in Barron’s March 5, 2016. Rankings based on assets under management, revenue generated for the advisors’ firms, quality of practices and other factors. **As reported in Barron’s August 22, 2015 and August 27, 2016. Based on assets under management, quality of practices, revenue that advisors generate for their firms, and other factors. For fee-only status see NAPFA.org. Minimum Investment Requirement: $500,000 in Michigan/$1,000,000 outside of Michigan.

STEFAN EDE/HUMBLE DESIGN

Above is a dining room furnished by Humble Design. The inset photo is what the room looked before Humble Design did its work. “This is a great way for nonprofits to think about who in the for-profits is doing what you need or has what you need and bring that into your organization,” Caldwell said. Michigan and Detroit have lots of social innovation happening, but the organizations operating those programs haven’t yet found their corporate matches that will enable them to expand where needed, he said. Humble Design’s low-cost model of providing in-person design consulting and gently used home furnishings and decor is the missing piece to solving the massive homeless issue in the U.S., said Treger Strasberg, co-founder/CEO of Humble Design with her husband Rob Strasberg, who left his position as the top creative executive and former co-owner at Southfield-based advertising agency Doner in December to work full time with his wife at the nonprofit. While volunteering at Oak Parkbased food rescue Forgotten Harvest in 2008, Treger Strasberg met a woman who was sleeping on the floor of her home with her children because they didn’t have beds. She began collecting furniture and was able to help the family. But the furniture kept coming, along with the need. “And shelters were begging us to do this,” Strasberg said. So Humble Design was born. It continues to collect donations of gently used furniture, toys, books and housewares and stores them at its Pontiac warehouse space until it finds the right home for them through referrals from eight area shelters and agencies. After identifying a family in need, its designers meet with each family to get a sense of their furnishing needs and taste. Later the same week, the designers return to the home with volunteers to furnish it with items from the warehouse while the owners are gone and reveal it in a style modeled on the former television show “Extreme Makeover” just hours later. Julie Nagle, executive director of Humble Design, said the Humble Design team and volunteers always think

children will get most excited about the theme in their newly decorated bedrooms or the toys waiting for them. But they go directly to their beds and turn on Julie Nagle: Kids and off the get excited about lamps, excitedly. having a bed and a They have a place lamp. they can call their own, now, where they can study, read and dream. “It’s not in the dark, and it’s not on the floor,” Nagle said. People helped by Humble Design immediately feel a sense of ownership, Rob Strasberg said. “They are going to fight to keep this home.” Of the 364 families it helped between 2014 when it began measuring and 2016, only 1 percent had returned to a homeless shelter within the first year of moving into their new home, Nagle said, based on feedback from the shelters and check-ins with the families. It’s tough to determine average recidivism statistics for the homeless population in the region, given that people who find themselves homeless again don’t always return to the same shelter. But for some comparison: there were 16,040 homeless people in Detroit, Hamtramck and Highland Park in 2015, according to Homeless Action Network Detroit. Of those, 52 percent reported being homeless for the first time that year, meaning, conversely, that about 48 percent had been homeless before. Humble Design has a new satellite warehouse location in Dearborn in the works currently, thanks to U-Haul, which first learned of its work through Cynthia Ford, the wife of Edsel Ford II. After touring the nonprofit’s warehouse, she asked U-Haul for a truck on its behalf. The match between U-Haul’s assets and Humble Design’s needs became clear as it learned more about the non-

profit. Its donation of storage space, truck use, grants and company volunteers is “a vote of faith in their mission and ability to serve this overlooked need in the community,” Sebastien Reyes, director, external communications for U-Haul, said in an email. U-Haul plans to give Humble Design about 15,000 square feet in a new storage facility it’s developing in a former Lear Corp. building off of the Southfield Freeway and Ford Road in Dearborn. That space will enable Humble Design to more than double the number of veterans it’s currently helping to 156 veterans each year or three a week, while it continues to assist the same number of families in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties. Humble Design is working to raise $238,000 to cover the build-out of the interior, marketing and an initial team of six comprised of a director to run the site, a warehouse manager, designers and on-staff movers. Once the Dearborn site is operational, PenFed Foundation in Alexandria, Va., has committed to fund the cash cost to assist each veteran, Strasberg said. Humble Design serves three families per week from the Pontiac site. It’s operating on a $1.1 million budget for 2017, with about $500,000 of that as a cash budget, said Nagle. Humble Design’s model is working so well in Southeast Michigan, it makes sense to take it other cities, beginning with Chicago, Strasberg said. “We thought the need was profound in Detroit, but the need in Chicago is more than double.” After appearing on the NBC “Today Show” last summer when it latched on to a home reveal video that went viral, Humble Design received about 800 emails from communities across the country asking it to come to their regions, she said. Kristin Drutchas, a former Wicker Park home furnishings business owner and Chicago public school fundraiser, was among those eager to see Humble Design in her backyard. She did a lot of the early due diligence on the market, including forging a relationship with Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago, which will be the first to refer families transitioning out of a shelter to Humble Design. She’s joined the nonprofit’s team as director of the Chicago operation. U-Haul is making available about 50,000 square feet in its self-storage facility in Bridgeport on the south side of Chicago. Chicago-based CB2 has also committed $150,000 to fund for the first year of limited operation there as Humble Design ramps up to serving three families per week as it does in Michigan, Nagle said. Humble Design Chicago furnished its first home March 1. Humble Design is allowing people who otherwise couldn’t have the experience of a new home, said Ryan Hertz, president and CEO of South Oakland Shelter in Lathrup Village. “They are doing a part of the puzzle shelters aren’t resourced to do.” Sherri Welch: (313) 446-1694 Twitter: @SherriWelch

C R A I N ’ S D E T R O I T B U S I N E S S // M A R C H 2 7 , 2 0 1 7

CALENDAR TUESDAY MARCH 28

J Putting Social Media to Work for Your Business. 6-9 p.m. Schoolcraft

College. Discover how to select and manage the right social media platform(s) for products or services. Jeffress Center, Schoolcraft College, Livonia. $45. Contact: Sara Gumina, phone: (734) 462-4438; email: sgumina@schoolcraft.edu; website: sbdcmichigan.org.

WEDNESDAY MARCH 29

9th Annual Trade Secrets with Connie Holzer. 6-9:30 p.m. JVS. Keynote

Education Center, Troy. $32 members; $36 nonmembers. Website: leadershipoakland.com. J The New Face of Branding. 8 a.m. April 7. Ann Arbor Spark. Features a panel of experts who have success communicating with audiences ranging from millennials to corporate executives. Speakers include: Tim Smith, CEO, Skidmore Studio and creative director, Daily Fuel; Pete Baker, creative director, Duo; Sean Hickey, COO, PWB Marketing Communications. EMU Student Center, Ypsilanti. $5. Email: fpgibson@gmail.com

DEALS & DETAILS ACQUISITIONS & MERGERS

J Superior Capital Partners LLC, Detroit, a private equity firm, has completed an add-on acquisition for its Los Angeles-based user interface and product identification portfolio company, Nelson-Miller Inc., acquiring the assets of Wilson-Hurd Manufacturing, Wausau, Wis. Website: superiorfund.com.

CONTRACTS

Meritor Inc., Troy, announced Vonic Fleet Services Inc., Anaheim, Calif., is a service partner of the Meritor Service Point program,

which provides fleets and owner-operators with a network of Meritor-approved service partners. Websites: meritor.com, vonicfleetservices.com. J Near Perfect Media LLC, Birmingham, a public relations firm, has been named agency of record for Laser Eye Institute, Troy; Orlans PC, Troy, and The Welburn Group, Detroit. Website: nearperfectmedia.com.

J Ulliance Inc., Troy, a provider of human resources services, is providing its Life Advisor EAP service

speaker Connie Holzer, owner of Tom Holzer Ford, who has built it into one of the top Ford dealerships in the country. Holzer took over the dealership when her husband died in 2006, at the same time the country was going into an economic tailspin. Troy Marriott. $150. Contact: Judy Strongman, phone: (248) 233-4213; email: jstrongman@jvsdet.org; website: jvsdet.org/tradesecrets.

THURSDAY MARCH 30

Conversational Intelligence. 8-10

a.m. Inforum. Learn the five “essentials” used by conversationally intelligent people. Lab leader is Erika Alessandrini, president/CEO, Strategies for Success. Denso International America, Southfield. $85. Contact: inforummichigan.org.

FRIDAY MARCH 31

The Culture of Accountability. 7-9

a.m. The Business Roundtable. Stanley Targosz III, CEO of Education Planning Resources, will speak on how stronger cultures of accountability lead to higher performance and commitment within companies. Birmingham Country Club. $35 person, $350 table of eight and branding opportunities. Contact: Christa Moxon, phone: (269) 685-7829; email: christa.moxon@thebusinessrt.org; website: thebusinessrt.org.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Staying Relevant in a Noisy World.

7:30-9 a.m. April 4. Leadership Oakland. Joyce Jenereaux, former publisher and president of the Detroit Free Press and Michigan.com, on leadership and Joyce Jenereaux business lessons she learned along the way. MSU Management Calendar guidelines. Visit crainsdetroit.com and click “Events” near the top of the home page. Then, click “Submit Your Events” from the drop-down menu that will appear. Fill out the submission form, then click “Submit event” at the bottom of the page. More Calendar items can be found at crainsdetroit.com/events.

“Almost everything I have in my life resulted from my MBA at Michig gan State University. How many people can say y they ey wer ere able to raise two children as a sing ngle le par a en nt, work a full tim ime,, and earrn an MBA allll at th the e sa same me tim ime e. The here’s realllly y not much you can’t do af a ter that.” With classes held every other weekend for 20 months, an Executive MBA from the Broad College of Business gives you the opportunities to make business happe en. RA R ACH C EL BAU AUER ER, ER R, MB BA ’113 RE RE EG GION O AL LE ON LEA EAN MA ANA AN NA AGER GER GER GE DET D DE ET TROI ROIT TM MEDI EDI ED D CA CAL AL A L CE ENT NTE TE ER

Lear Le arn n mo more re at: BROAD.MSU.EDU/RACH CHEL EL

line to Beaumont Health, Royal Oak. Website: ulliance.com.

STARTUPS

Detroit Dog Company, Royal Oak, a locally sourced hot dog retailer, has opened at 200 W. 5th Ave., Royal Oak. Telephone: (734) 678-2406. Website: detroitdog.com. J

Deals & Details guidelines. Email cdbdepartments@crain.com. Use any Deals & Details item as a model for your release, and look for the appropriate category. Without complete information, your item will not run. Photos are welcome, but we cannot guarantee they will be used.

C R A I N â&#x20AC;&#x2122; S D E T R O I T B U S I N E S S // M A R C H 2 7 , 2 0 1 7

CRAIN'S LIST: LARGEST MICHIGAN WOMAN-OWNED BUSINESSES Ranked by 2016 revenue Company Address Phone; website

Revenue Revenue Michigan Michigan Percent ($000,000) ($000,000) Percent employees employees womanMajority owner(s) 2016 2015 change Jan. 2017 Jan. 2016 owned Type of business

Ilitch companies B 2211 Woodward Ave., Detroit 48201 (313) 471-6600; www.ilitchcompanies.com

Marian Ilitch chairman

Detroit Manufacturing Systems LLC 12701 Southfield Road, Building A, Detroit 48223 (313) 243-0700; dmsna.com

Andra Rush chairman and CEO

1,035.5

Dakkota Integrated Systems LLC 1875 Holloway Drive, Holt 48842 (517) 694-6500; www.dakkotasystems.com

Andra Rush chairman and CEO

RKA Petroleum Cos. Inc. 28340 Wick Road, Romulus 48174 (734) 946-2199; www.rkapetroleum.com

Kay Albertie owner

Strategic Staffing Solutions Inc. 645 Griswold St., Suite 2900, Detroit 48226 (313) 596-6900; www.strategicstaff.com

Rank

7 8 9 10

$3,132.0 C $3,046.0 C

2.8%

Food, sports and entertainment industries. Companies include Little Caesars Pizza, Olympia Entertainment, Detroit Red Wings, Blue Line Foodservice Distribution, MotorCity Casino Hotel, Ilitch Holdings Inc., Champion Foods, Olympia Development and Little Caesars Pizza Kit Fundraising Program. Automotive component manufacturing, module assembly and sequencing services

1,022.5

1.3

836

886

737.0

845.0

-12.8

796

758

Complete assemblies for original-equipment manufacturers

457.5 C

481.6 C

-5.0

100

Petroleum wholesaler, biodiesel, ethanol, E-85, jet A and jet A1 products, compressed natural gas and liquefied natural gas as well as a hauler of crude oil

Cynthia Pasky president and CEO

350.0

303.0

15.5

1,040

1,220

Consulting and staff augmentation services, vendor management programs, executive search services, call center technology and a domestic IT development center

Buff Whelan Chevrolet 40445 Van Dyke Ave., Sterling Heights 48313 (586) 939-7300; www.buffwhelan.com

Kerry Whelan president

224.8

208.0

8.1

163

167

100

Automobile dealership

Brazeway Inc. 2711 E. Maumee St., Adrian 49221-0749 (517) 265-2121; www.brazeway.com

Stephanie Hickman Boyse, president, CEO

191.7

200.9

-4.6

Aluminum extruded tubing and heat transfer components for automotive, HVAC and appliance industries

Vesco Oil Corp. 16055 W. 12 Mile Road, Southfield 48076 (248) 557-1600; www.vescooil.com

Marjory Epstein, chairman; Lillian Epstein Stotland; Lena Epstein, GMs

173.0

161.1

7.4

178

188

Distributor of automotive and industrial lubricants, petroleum and aftermarket products and chemicals

Mindi Fynke EHIM Inc. 26711 Northwestern Highway, Suite 400, Southfield president and CEO 48033-2154 (248) 948-9900; www.ehimrx.com Andra Rush Rush Trucking Corp. founder and 35160 E. Michigan Ave., Wayne 48184 chairman (800) 526-7874; www.rushtrucking.com

134.7

131.3

2.6

113

112

100

EHIM is a full solution health care company offering pharmacy benefits management services, third-party administration and consulting services.

121.3

140.4

-13.6

245

298

100

Motor carrier

Mahar Tool Supply Co. 112 Williams St., Saginaw 48605 (989) 799-5530; mahartool.com

Barb Mahar Lincoln CEO

119.0

130.7

-8.9

119

100

Tool management partner and industrial distribution

Wolverine Truck Sales Inc. 3550 Wyoming Ave., Dearborn 48120 (313) 849-0800; www.wolverinetruckgroup.com

Lynn Terry president

101.3

80.5

25.8

162

155

100

Truck sales, parts and service

Rodgers Chevrolet Inc. 23755 Allen Road, Woodhaven 48183 (734) 676-9600; www.rodgerschevrolet.com

Pamela Rodgers president

86.1

77.6

11.0

Automobile dealership

TTi Global Inc. 3903 W. Hamlin Road, Rochester Hills 48309 (248) 853-5550; www.tti-global.com

Lori Blaker owner, president and CEO

82.7

82.4

0.4

200

Staffing, learning, outsourcing, research and consulting

BlueWater Technologies Group Inc. 24050 Northwestern Highway, Southfield 48075 (248) 356-4399; www.bluewatertech.com

Suzanne Schoeneberger president

76.0

70.0

8.6

220

190

Audiovisual consultant. Handles large-scale audiovisual operations for sporting events, trade shows, corporate facilities and retail applications

74.0

69.0

7.2

400

350

Stamping plant; automotive welding, assembly, dies and prototypes

69.2

65.0

6.4

217

248

100

Precision machining and assembly of automotive products

62.0

58.0

6.9

100

Full-service talent management and event staffing agency

56.0

0.0

527

100

Technical staffing firm specializing in the placement of engineers, IT, and finance and accounting professionals on a contract and directhire basis

16 17 18 19

Judith Kucway Motor City Stamping Inc. 47783 N. Gratiot Ave., Chesterfield Township 48051 CEO and CFO (586) 949-8420; www.mcstamp.com Sharon Cannarsa Systrand Manufacturing Corp. president and CEO 19050 Allen Road, Brownstown Township 48183 (734) 479-8100; www.systrand.com Margery Krevsky Productions Plus - The Talent Shop 30600 Telegraph Road, Suite 2156, Bingham Farms CEO 48025 (248) 644-5566; www.productions-plus.com Mara Kalnins G-TECH Services Inc. Ghafari 17101 Michigan Ave., Dearborn 48126 secretary (313) 441-3600; www.gogtech.com

ARC Supply Chain Solutions Inc. 13221 Inkster Road, Taylor 48180 (877) 272-3523; www.arc-scs.com

Greta Elliott president

53.7

55.2

-2.7

Third-party logistics service, freight bill audit and payment, freight optimization

MVC 27087 Gratiot Ave., Roseville 48066 (586) 491-2602; mvcusa.com

Linda Torakis president

53.0

48.0

10.4

Automotive decorative trim components including chrome plating, paint, injection molding, stamping, tool building

Seko Worldwide Detroit 6800 S. Cypress, Romulus 48174 (734) 641-2100; www.sekologistics.com/detroit

Tanya Bartelo owner

41.3

38.9

6.3

Global logistics provider, including air, ocean and domestic transportation, as well as customs brokerage services and export crating

CrossFire Group 691 N. Squirrel Road, Suite 118, Auburn Hills 48326 (248) 364-0007; www.xfiregroup.com

Deborah Schneider co-founder and CEO

36.0

41.0

-12.2

Staffing, payroll, executive search and other HR-related services

Alliance Technology Solutions LLC 40 Engelwood Drive, Suite H, Lake Orion 48359 (248) 364-2195; www.ATS.biz

Margie Carlson president and CEO

31.3

18.4

70.4

100

IT provider offering hardware, software, services and maintenance

Automotive Quality & Logistics Inc. 14744 Jib St., Plymouth 48170 (734) 459-1670; www.aql-inc.com

Sangeeta Ahluwalia CEO

28.0

24.0

16.7

346

318

Provides staffing and service to the automotive manufacturing facilities and their suppliers

This list of woman-owned businesses is an approximate compilation of the largest such businesses headquartered in Michigan. Percentage of the company that is woman owned may not be solely held by the leading shareholder. Number of full-time employees may include full-time equivalents. It is not a complete listing but the most comprehensive available. Crain's estimates are based on industry analyses and benchmarks, news reports and a wide range of other sources. Unless otherwise noted, information was provided by the companies. Two Men and a Truck International Inc., which was No. 5 on last year's list no longer qualifies since founder Mary Ellen Sheets retired this year. Global Supply Solutions, which was No. 9 and Millennium Software which was No. 21 on last year's list both declined to participate this year. NA = not available.

B Marian Ilitch is now the chairperson of the company after the death of husband, Michael Ilitch, on Feb. 10. Excludes revenue from Detroit Tigers but includes MotorCity Casino Hotel, which had 2016 revenue of $467.9 million and is 100% woman-owned.

C Crain's estimate.

C R A I N ’ S D E T R O I T B U S I N E S S // M A R C H 2 7 , 2 0 1 7

State grant branches out of downtown, Midtown projects By Chad Livengood clivengood@crain.com

Michigan’s economic development arm is starting to branch out of downtown and Midtown to help bridge the gap in financing for commercial and residential real estate projects in targeted corners of Detroit. The Michigan Strategic Fund has awarded a $730,933 performance-based grant to the developers of a $3.9 million mixed-use residential and commercial project in Detroit’s West Village neighborhood on the city’s east side. “Midtown’s doing really well. Projects are getting done with little or very little needed help from us. So now the game moves out to the neighborhoods,” said Steve Arwood, CEO of the Michigan Economic Development Corp. The Coe at West Village at the corner of Van Dyke and Coe streets will include eight three-story residential townhouses and four apartments, which will be a mix of market rate and affordable rentals. On Van Dyke Street, the L-shaped building will have two retail storefronts below the apartments. “We really could not have done the project at all without the funding from the MEDC,” said developer Clifford Brown of Woodborn Partners LLC. Brown’s Woodborn Partners, which recently moved from Southfield to Detroit, is redeveloping the less-than-one-acre site under the name of Coe Van Dyke LLC. Detroit-based Sachse Construction is building the residential and retail units designed by Grosse Pointe Park-based Christian Hurttienne Architects. Brown expects the building to be ready for occupancy by this fall. MEDC officials said smaller projects in neighborhoods like West Village that are seeing other redevelopment activity shouldn’t be discounted in their potential economic impact. “Small ball can snowball,” Arwood told Crain’s. The development of small retail shops and new housing “could really kick start” revitalization on the city’s east side, said Greg Tedder, chief community development and marketing officer for the MEDC. “In a way, these types of projects are just as significant as a big building downtown that has a bigger dollar number to it,” Tedder said. “But we’re really about impact as much as we are total value.” The Michigan Strategic Fund’s contribution to the project comes from the $30 million annual state funding for the Michigan Community Revitalization Program. That $30 million fund is used for both grants and revolving loans for neighborhood-level real estate projects. The MEDC is looking to make new investments and loans in Detroit neighborhoods that are targeted by Mayor Mike Duggan to create more walkable communities outside of Midtown, downtown and the New Center area. Those areas include the Rosa

CHRISTIAN HURTTIENNE ARCHITECTS

A rendering of the Coe at West Village at the corner of Van Dyke and Coe streets. Parks-Clairmount neighborhood, southwest Detroit along the West Vernor corridor; northwest Detroit along the Grand River corridor; and the Islandview and villages neighborhoods along the east riverfront. The MEDC’s long-term strategy in Detroit’s long-abandoned neighborhoods focuses on helping establish comparable property values needed

to get banks to lend money for more residential and commercial construction, Tedder said. “We prefer to make an impact on an area, create a (comparable price), so that the next time something goes to get financed, you’ve got a clear, successful project that you can look at that is five blocks away,” Tedder said.

Invest Detroit’s Strategic Neighborhood Fund Initiative has dedicated $1.29 million in a combination of a loan and equity stake in the project. Capital Impact Partners’ Detroit Neighborhoods Fund has loaned $1.9 million toward the construction costs, Brown said. The two-bedroom townhouses will rent for $2,100 per month and in-

clude garages. The studio apartments and one-bedroom lofts will range from $936 to $1,479 per month. “The thought is if we can show that ground-up development will work in these neighborhoods, we can spur other developers to come in,” Brown said. Chad Livengood: (313) 446-1654 Twitter: @ChadLivengood

Employment Law Experience

In Your Corner.

Ŷ Facilitative mediator for U.S. District Court –

Western District of Michigan and Michigan Courts. Ŷ Arbitrator and mediator with National Arbitration and Mediation, Inc., the American Settlement Centers and the National Arbitration Forum.

First Tier Ranking in Labor Law – Management

Detroit

Novi

Grand Rapids

Kalamazoo Ŷ Grand Haven

Lansing

Ann Arbor

Hastings

Contact Dick Hooker at rahooker@varnumlaw.com

Excel

C R A I N ’ S D E T R O I T B U S I N E S S // M A R C H 2 7 , 2 0 1 7

Exclusive to Data Members:

WITH

Access the complete digital Excel® download of Book of Lists BECOME A DATA MEMBER at

crainsdetroit.com/DataMembership

ADVERTISEMENT SECTION

HEALTH CARE Diana Bundschuh Chief Information Officer

CONSTRUCTION Tom Porter, JD, DBIA Vice President

Barton Malow Company Barton Malow Company recently announced the strategic re-hire of Tom Porter as Vice President. Tom will engage in several initiatives supporting Barton Malow’s long-term goal to double efficiency by the firm’s 100th anniversary in 2024. He brings a diverse background and 35+ years of experience in many areas of construction, such as legal, finance, risk management, labor strategy and safety.Tom is a certified DBIA professional and an active member of the Design-Build Institute of America.

TECHNOLOGY Dwaine Polio

Director of Technology Innovation KLA Laboratories Dwaine Polio will be responsible for developing and implementing strategies that drive technology innovation and growth to create innovative solutions that meet and exceed both current and prospective customers’ needs. He will also be responsible for leading research and development to uncover new, creative ways for customers to use the Internet of Things (IoT) to automate their processes within KLA Laboratories’ verticals. Polio formerly served as Executive Director of Technology and Services.

INSURANCE Bryan M Smith

Employee Benefits Sales Representative OneAmerica Bryan is a group life and disability insurance professional, and he brings to clients a focus on enrollment strategy, underwriting, group and voluntary benefits knowledge. Bryan previously worked as the Director of Mortgage Banking for Quicken Loans in Detroit. You may also contact him through OneAmerica at 1-800-553-5318 or visit http://bit.ly/OAWorkplaceBenefits.

Oakland County Community Mental Health Autority (OCCMHA) Bundschuh’s responsibilities include collaborating with the organization’s executive leadership team to establish long range goals, strategies, plans, and policies. She is also responsible for ensuring that OCCMHA’s information systems produce the necessary data and information to assure quality outcomes are achieved for people receiving services through the public mental health system. Prior to joining OCCMHA, Bundschuh served as Chief Information Officer for HegiraPrograms, Inc. in Livonia.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES Paul Sherwood

Business Development Director Ulliance, Inc. Paul Sherwood is responsible for new business development including creating and executing business strategies, building relationships with prospective and existing Ulliance clients, as well as identifying and securing new client accounts. Previous assignments include Paycor, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce, and Heath Care Administrators. Sherwood, a Macomb resident, received his B.A. in organizational leadership and management from Rochester College.

Know someone who is making the move to a new job, just received a promotion or was recently appointed as a board member?

SHARE THE NEWS IN CRAIN’S

For more information or questions regarding advertising in this section, please call Lynn Calcaterra at (313) 446-6086 or email: lcalcaterra@crain.com

Superior Industries offers to purchase Uniwheels for $715M By Dustin Walsh and Kurt Nagl dwalsh@crain.com and knagl@crain.com

Superior Industries International Inc. has launched an offer to acquire German competitor Uniwheels AG in a $715 million bid. The deal is an exclamation point on CEO Don Stebbins’ strategy to grow North America’s largest wheelmaker. Stebbins, the former CEO of Visteon Corp. who was ousted in 2012 after a two-year dispute with board members, joined Superior in 2014 and quickly began slashing costs. By cutting operating expenses by nearly $50 million between 2014 and last year, the CEO was able to increase income to more than $41 million last year from $22.8 million in 2013, all while revenue decreased marginally. Part of the cuts Uniwheels included moving Superior’s headsupplies quarters from Van aluminum Nuys, Calif., to 24800 Denso Drive wheels to in Southfield in BMW, 2015, which was Mercedes, supported by a Volkswagen $900,000 performance-based and other grant from the carmakers. Michigan Strategic Fund. The Southfield-based wheelmaker said it reached a deal Thursday to acquire the privately held 61.3 percent of the Uniwheel’s outstanding shares held by majority shareholder Uniwheels Holding (Malta) Ltd. It is also simultaneously bidding for the remaining 38.7 percent of shares traded on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, which will require approval of Uniwheels’ board and German regulators. Superior is offering $57.20 per share for the shares held by Uniwheels Holding and $59.60 per share for the public shares. The transaction is to be financed with roughly $660 million in debt, including $150 million from San Francisco private equity firm TPG Growth, which will assume an undisclosed equity stake in Superior and nominate a member to its board. Completion of the deal is expected by the end of May. Uniwheels supplies aluminum wheels to BMW, Mercedes, Volkswagen and other carmakers. It generated revenue of roughly $500 million in 2016, compared to Superior’s revenue of approximately $733 million last year. Evercore is serving as the lead financial adviser on the deal, with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and Ernst & Young LLP in support. Law firm Winston & Strawn LLP, Allen & Overy LLP, Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek and SMM Legal are serving as legal counsel.

BANKRUPTCIES The following business filed for bankruptcy protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Detroit March 17-23. Chapter 7 involves total liquidation.  Great Lakes Property & Investments Inc., 10709 Morang Drive, Detroit, involuntary Chapter 7. Assets and liabilities are not available. Tyler Clifford

PEOPLE: SPOTLIGHT

Tom Goddeeris to join Detroit Future City

Tom Goddeeris, executive director of Grandmont Rosedale Development Corp., is leaving the Detroit organization after 25 years to join Detroit Future City, beginning April 3. At DFC, Tom Goddeeris Goddeeris will serve as director of community and economic development, oversee its single-family housing, commercial corridors, adaptive reuse and planning activities across the city. Goddeeris is known for his pioneering community and economic development strategies and programs, including single-family renovation and resale, owner-occupied home repair, blight reduction, foreclosure prevention, main street revitalization, public safety and placemaking.

CultureSource CEO to join Bodman PLC Pamela Iacobelli, president and CEO of arts and cultural association CultureSource, is stepping down to return to the for-profit sector. She will join Bodman PLC as director of business dePamela Iacobelli velopment and marketing. The CultureSource board has contracted DHR International to conduct a search for Iacobelli's successor. In the interim, Chairman Rich Homberg, who is president of Detroit Public Television, will work closely with the Detroit-based association's team.

Aerotropolis appoints first executive director The Detroit Region Aerotropolis Development Corp. named Rob Luce of Canton Township as its new executive director. Luce, 37, began his post March 6 to oversee the economic development agency's dayRob Luce to-day operations and will report to the board of directors, the organization announced Tuesday. He is the first person to take on this role for the agency, which was managed by Wayne County or a part-time consultant since its inception in 2013.

March 27, 2017

REALITY

More on crainsdetroit.com

FROM PAGE 1

installed into the turbine. The manual process takes more than eight hours, said Todd Alhart, director of media relations for GE Global Research, the technology development arm of the conglomerate. With the help of augmented reality software installed on a tablet, the process is reduced to just one hour. “This used to take a full work day just to take those measurements,” Alhart said. “The productivity gains we’ve seen are startling and (augmented reality) has really made our workers more productive and efficient.” Alhart said GE is expanding its use of augmented reality to its aviation and power business units in the next 12 months. Airplane maker Boeing Co. uses custom Google Glass headset devices and released results last year showing its technicians assembling wire harnesses achieved 25 percent productivity gains. Roughly 14.4 million workers in the U.S. will wear augmented reality headsets in 2025, according to Forrester Research Inc.

The potential return Productivity — which measures workers’ output per hour — has largely been stagnant in the U.S. in recent years as no major innovations, such as the robot revolution of the 1980s and the internet boom of the 1990s, have hit the shop floor in the past two decades. In the U.S. productivity growth averaged just 0.5 percent annual growth between 2011 and 2016, compared to 3 percent annual growth between 1996 and 2005, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This slowing of productivity growth has led to weak economic growth — real gross domestic product growth was 1.6 percent in 2015, compared with 3.8 percent in 2004 — and stagnant wages that have drawn the ire of the White House. President Donald Trump has called for 4 percent GDP growth through his policies, which experts predict will be nearly unattainable without massive gains in either the working-age population or significant gains in productivity. The population of people not in prison or the military in prime working age, 25 to 54, boomed in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s thanks to the baby boomer generation, women entering the workforce and immigration rising. That population rose from 69.4 million in 1969 to more than 126 million in December 2007. It has since tapered off to 125.6 million in February, according to the U.S. Federal Reserve. However, with low birth rates, nearly 11,000 baby boomers retiring each day and new immigration restrictions under the Trump administration, population growth is pretty much off the table. Those factors are likely to force downward pressure on the economy. Productivity gains are the only avenue to boost economic growth overall, especially to lower- and middle-class people, said Wallace Hopp,

Page 1515

C R A I N ’ S D E T R OC IT B’SUDSETROIT I N EBSUSINESS S // M A R C H 2 7 , 2 0 1 7 RAIN

To see a video demonstration of how OPS Solutions LLC’s augmented reality system works, go to crainsdetroit.com/augmented

associate dean for learning design and professor of industrial and operations engineering at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. “Our economy is declining in its structural ability to generate wealth on a per person basis,” Hopp said. “No amount of fiddling with trade restrictions or pumping up employment through government spending will change this. The only way we are going to see sustained improvement in standards of living is by increasing productivity.” Hopp said the concept of foolproofing the manufacturing process

has the potential to do more than just streamline the process, it offers manufacturing a chance to stave off mass automation and maintain employment — but only marginally. “The OPS system will make a tiny contribution to that, as will all of the other advances in both automation and work practices,” Hopp said. “But those have been going on for the past decade, and our productivity (growth) decline has been rapid.” Charles Ballard, economist at Michigan State University, said technologies like OPS’ represent positive gains in productivity and innova-

MISCELLANEOUS

PRINCIPAL ENGINEER: JOB CODE PE-02

SURVEY

C.W. JENNINGS INDUSTRIAL EXCHANGE

Principal Engineer he/she will be exptd to func as lead on some. U’standing of Mult med on Android & Linux bas sys with u’lying connec techn of USB, Bluetooth, TCP/IP and Ethernet AVB. Prep high level dsgn in cons with arch, rev detail dsgn, participate in code rev & test plan gen. resp for the delivery of the qlty reusable & mod SW acc to the proj pln. dev new features, debug issues & write test case for unit test. Iden pri, updat trking & root cause doc etc. Con code and dsgn review, appr changes. Work prog mngr to dev proj plan,to manage proj risk & secure domain deliv. Req: Bach’s deg or forgn equi in Comp Sci, App, Electronic or T’com Eng with 5 yrs ext exp in SW des & dev on Mob Smartpho ot In-Veh Infot plat in lang of C/C++ or Java with Excel skil in Obj Orien pgm and Des Pat. Alter: MS deg or forgn equi in ComSci, Appl Electr or T’com Eng with 3 yrs of ext exp in SW des and dev on Mob Smartph / In-Vehi Infot platform in lang of C/C++ or Java with Exc skil in Obj Orie Pgm and Des Pat. Exp incl: Min5 yrs of exp of emb Lin dev, fam with POSIX APIs. Min 2 yrs of exp of Mult med from In-Vehicle Infot or smartph. Exp in IVI Mul med and Conn, fam with BT Mul med spec A2DP, AVRCP; fam with MTP; fam with Apple spec IAP1 & IAP2. Fam with Aud/Vid CODECs (lAAC/MP3/MJPEG/H.264). Exp of inte of Cine Med Eng & GraceNote Metadata Eng. Fam with Android Stagefright eng & OpenMAX FW. Fam with EAVB protocols (IEEE 802.1ba, IEEE 802.1 1588, IEEE802.1AS, IEEE802.1Qat, IEEE 802.1.Qav, IEEE 1722). Hnds on Exp of stream aud vid in veh entert sys via EAVB. Exp in des & build larg comp SW in a real-time emb multi-inter env. Shld be well ver with OS conc OOP Des Patt & ov of the sys comp of Linux, Android. Work location: Livonia, MI. May have long ter assi in other loc in U.S. incl Novi, MI areas.

ANALYZE

Global Industrial Consulting Construction • Acquisitions Exporting • Financing (855) 707-1944

MATCH

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES $$ BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY $$ CrainsDetroit.com/JobConnect |

REAL ESTATE

Call 248-651-5267 FRANCHISE OPPORTUNITIES

VACANT LAND

DOWNTOWN ROCHESTER

3.4 Acre Vacant Land Walk to Downtown Borders Clinton River & Pollyann Trail

Call Chuck 248-821-0752

CHECK US OUT AT WWW.PASSPORTPIZZA.COM CALL (586) 992-8800 OR EMAIL MIKE@PASSPORTPIZZA.COM

Call Us For Personalized Service: (313) 446-6068 FAX: (313) 446-0347 E-MAIL: cdbclassified@crain.com INTERNET: www.crainsdetroit.com/section/classifieds

See Crainsdetroit.com/Section/Classifieds for more classified advertisements

Dustin Walsh: (313) 446-6042 Twitter: @dustinpwalsh

POSITIONS AVAILABLE

INDUSTRIAL SERVICES

FRANCHISES AVAILABLE

OPS is now targeting the health care industry — specifically the manual kitting of surgical instruments. In most hospitals, workers organize and package surgical instruments based on the need of the surgery and surgeon. Errors are prevalent, Ryznar said. OPS is currently engaged in sales discussions with University of Michigan Health System, Henry Ford Health System and Detroit Receiving Hospital. “We launched Light Guide Systems in the automotive market because if it can work at an auto plant, it can work almost anywhere,” Ryznar said. “Now with confidence we can go into hospitals and expect medical can be more than 50 percent of our business (in the future).” Ryznar said the only limits to the systems’ ability to help employers achieve optimal productivity and create more jobs is awareness. “There’s so many companies that don’t know about our economy and think augmented reality is just for video games,” he said. “But augmented reality is going to be more accepted and it’s going to build on that, and it’s going to help the overall economy and make U.S. manufacturing much more productive.”

JOB FRONT

MARKET PLACE

Established Bridal & Formal North Macomb County Seeking working Partner w/Capital. Possible future ownership.

tion, but only incremental. “Some point to the fact that a tremendous amount of innovation is happening in all sorts of fields having to do with digital electronics,” Ballard said. “That’s true, but I think there are limits to the amount of productivity growth we will get from all of that.” Ryznar disagrees. He believes the Light Guide System will play a role in ensuring manufacturers choose human labor over automation as more manufacturing returns to the U.S. under pressure from the federal government — as Trump has maligned manufacturers for choosing low-cost countries. “With the recent (political) focus on manufacturing in the U.S., as new plants come on board and new workers are hired, companies are asking themselves if they should put a person on that job or a robot,” Ryznar said. “We see Light Guide as an answer to that question. Companies can get their people up to speed quickly and boost productivity. That’s why I see us as not only a jobs retainer, but a jobs creator.” So far, OPS is succeeding as its $10,000 to multi-million dollar systems are making there way to shop floors around the world — it currently sells in 13 countries with expectations of reaching 20 by the end of 2017.

COMMERCIAL PROPERTIES Office/Commercial/Light Industrial Indoor and Outdoor Parking 15360 Commerce Dr. South, Dearborn 18,000 sq. ft. ~ $1,865,000

Call Sam at 248-722-1937

Devonshire Realty LLC. For Brochure

INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY

ST. CLAIR COUNTY, MI 430,000 Sq. Ft., 20 Acre Portfolio For Sale by Owner. $760,000 Gross Rent, 26 Year History. Industrial, Warehouse, Offices. Much Potential. Email Contact:

srsco3500@gmail.com

Please send CV’s to: Harman Connected Services Attn: Gokul Deivanayagam/Job Code PE-02 2002 156th Avenue NE - Suite 200 Bellevue, WA 98007

RETIREMENT SYSTEMS OF THE CITY OF DETROIT Joint Personnel Committee 500 Woodward Ave, Suite 3000 Detroit, Michigan 48226 JOB TITLE: Executive Director - Retirement Systems SALARY: $150,000 - $200,000 (Starting salary is dependent upon qualifications and experience) The City of Detroit has two distinct and separate retirement systems: the General Retirement System; and the Police and Fire Retirement System. The legal and fiduciary responsibility for the general administration, management, and proper operation of the Retirement Systems, and for making effective their provisions, is vested in each Retirement System’s Board of Trustees. The Retirement Systems provide services and benefits to approximately 9000 active members and 12,000 retirees and beneficiaries. Currently, combined Retirement System assets are in excess of $4 billion. Each Retirement System is comprised of two distinct plans: a legacy traditional defined benefit plan and a new hybrid defined benefit plan. Information about each Retirement System is available on the RSCD website at www.RSCD.org. Please refer to the website for the full job description and benefits. Submit information for this job posting to: jobs@rscd.org

WOMEN FROM PAGE 1

“Diversity in general, not just women, is important. To have different perspectives on any topic or issue at hand is crucial to coming to the ultimate and right decision,” said Detroit Lions CFO Allison Maki, the only female C-suite member among any Detroit team. Detroit’s teams are generally in line for gender diversity compared with their peers, according to industry data from The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida (see sidebar), but they lag the rest of corporate America. Why there is so little diversity doesn’t have an easy answer. Two of the teams have women owners: Marian Ilitch owns the Red Wings and Martha Firestone Ford owns the Lions, and the candidate pool of women with sports backgrounds interested in management roles has been growing for decades. Pro sports have made incremental racial diversity progress since Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier in 1947, but gender equity has largely been a quieter issue. The landmark federal Title IX legislation in 1972 established the legal baseline for gender equality for funding in publicly funded high school and college athletics, and women over the past couple of decades also have begun to assume more of a presence in pro sports leagues and in team front offices. The conversation about the opportunities for women in professional sports could leap into overdrive: Gender equity in general has been a major topic in 2017, with millions of women gathering in Washington, D.C., and in cities globally on Jan. 21 for a rights protest, and International Women’s Day was marked with a “Day Without Women” strike that continued the conversation. “I think that whenever the society sees women’s empowerment — in this case on such a massive scale — it makes those in power in pro sports take notice of what women can accomplish on very big public stages,” said Mary Jo Kane, a professor and director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport at the University of Minnesota.

Why gender matters Sexism and bigotry, whether overt or unintentional, in hiring and promotion is bad for business: Industry data shows that women have grown to account for at least 30 to 40-plus percent of fans of each of the major leagues (along with NASCAR and The PGA Tour), and there have been corresponding efforts to grow those numbers via merchandising and cause-marketing. Women represent billions of dollars for teams and leagues. Increasingly, women expect to see themselves represented within those sports, experts say, and there is evidence to suggest a lack of women in senior leadership roles is financially foolish: Companies with at least 30 percent female executives saw as much as six percentage

C R A I N ’ S D E T R O I T B U S I N E S S // M A R C H 2 7 , 2 0 1 7

Gender diversity: Where the local teams stand

he Detroit Lions, Tigers, and Pistons are about on par for gender diversity with the other teams in their leagues, according to annual benchmark data from The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida. The Detroit Red Wings trail their counterparts. UCF’s diversity institute, run by Richard Lapchick, every year publishes racial and gender hiring report cards for the major leagues and other sports. His report is widely considered the sports industry’s measuring stick for diversity. (It doesn’t track the National Hockey League.) Here’s a team-by-team look at where Detroit’s four pro clubs stand as far as gender diversity, and what efforts are underway to improve it. — Bill Shea

Detroit Tigers

Lewis

Zeringue

Detroit Red Wings

Bartos

The Red Wings have one woman in a senior leadership role, Michele Bartos, and she is the vice president of human resources for Olympia Entertainment, which handles the team’s

Among Detroit Tigers senior executives, two of 13 vice presidents are women — Elaine Lewis, vice president of community and public affairs, and Ellen Hill Zeringue, vice president of marketing. That’s 15 percent, slightly under the Major League Baseball average of about 18 percent of women in vice president roles. The Tigers also have two senior directors — Kelli Kollman in finance and Karen Gruca in human resources — and a female head groundskeeper, Heather Nabozny. Based on the team’s front office directory listed online, the Tigers employ 47 women out of 179 staffers. That’s 26 percent and in line with MLB’s average of 27.6 percent for teams. To bolster the talent pipeline, the Tigers host a “Women in Sports Panel” that’s now entering its fourth year. The event is part of a ticket promotion, and the panelists are established women in sports. This year’s panel is May 16.

business functions. The team website lists 11 senior executive positions, from vice president to CEO, and all are held by men. There are five women in director-level jobs (out of 23) overseeing merchandise, client retention, integrated media, private event sales and ticket service. Overall, the team said about a third of its employees are women. Unlike other pro leagues, data isn’t available on the NHL’s diversity levels, so it’s difficult to compare the Wings against league or team averages. The NHL headquarters didn’t respond to a request for comment. The Red Wings do have one woman in the most prominent front office position of all: They’re owned by Marian Ilitch, who bought the club with her late husband, Mike Ilitch, for $8 million in 1982. She’s known for having been the top financial gatekeeper for the team.

points more in net profit than companies with less gender diversity, according to a study of nearly 22,000 public companies worldwide by the Washington, D.C.-based The Peterson Institute for International Economics. Working in prominent roles in traditionally male-dominated leagues sends a positive signal for young women: “Certainly, a young girl seeing women in a variety of positions, that may send a message that says, ‘I can do that, too,’” said former Oakland Raiders CEO Amy Trask. “When I started, there were no other women in executive positions. The landscape’s entirely different. There is a landscape now.” There still is resistance to females in the front office. Trask, who joined the Oakland Raiders as a legal intern in 1983 and rose to run the team as CEO from 1997 to 2013, is blunt when asked about teams, leagues or companies that don’t hire based purely on talent, advocating “business Darwinism” to claim them. “Any business, NFL or otherwise, that doesn’t hire without regard to gender, ethnicity, race, religion, or any other individuality — which has no bearing whatsoever on whether you can do the job — deserves to fail,” said Trask, now an on-air analyst for CBS Sports Net-

work and author of the book You Negotiate Like a Girl. “Why would you eliminate vast swaths of a candidate pool for meaningless reasons?” Armstrong: Front offices Sports has a in traditionally responsibility. male sports such as football and hockey remain mostly men because society conditions people to think of those sports as male. And that’s not good business, said Ketra Armstrong, a University of Michigan professor of sport management and co-director of the Michigan Center for Sport Management. The visibility of pro sports can help break down needless employment barriers for women and minorities, Armstrong said, but it’s a slow process. “Because of the masculinity that has defined sports, and perception that any woman there as an invader, sport has a responsibility to be a social change agent. It can set the tone throughout the country,” Armstrong said. “Eroding that gender ideology is going to take a little more time.”

Detroit Lions

Kozole

Griffin

The Detroit Lions exceed the NFL’s gender staffing average with three women among 12 vice president or higher positions, which is 25 percent. Among the NFL’s 32 teams, 21 percent of senior administrators were women, which was 59 positions in 2016, according to Lapchick’s report card. The Lions are owned by a woman, Martha Firestone Ford, who inherited the club when husband William Clay Ford Sr. died in 2014, and her three daughters are team vice chairmen. One, Sheila Ford Hamp, is said to be especially influential with her mother’s oversight of the team. When Martha Ford inherited the team, she put her stamp on the moribund franchise with a purge of senior management. She hired Rod Wood, the Ford family’s financial adviser as head of Ford Estate, as team president. He fired a pair of senior female administrators but also filled those roles with women: Kelly Kozole as senior vice president of business development and Emily Griffin as vice president of marketing. Additionally, Allison Maki in 2015 was promoted to CFO. She’s also senior vice president of administration.

The data Because professional sports teams are high-profile companies, often worth a billion dollars or more, their front office diversity can be in the spotlight. Yet unlike companies with similar revenue, sports teams typically have relatively few employees, often just a couple of hundred full-timers compared to thousands for a manufacturer. Still, the opportunities for women in sports have grown because front offices continually enlarge thanks to increasing demands for technology, marketing, and social media. Women also are moving into coaching, scouting, and officiating. They still lag behind their counterparts in other fields: Women account for 52 percent of all workers employed in management, professional, and related occupations, according to federal Bureau of Labor Statistics data, and they account for 47 percent of total U.S. employment. Outside of pro sports, women account for 25 percent of executiveand senior-level positions, and 37 percent of first or mid-level officials

Detroit Pistons Out of 23 jobs from vice president to the C-suite, the two women employed by the Pistons and Palace Sports & Entertainment are Diane Ferranti, vice president of production and programming, and Alicia Jeffreys, vice president of brand strategy. The team has two female corporate controllers and four senior directors — positions that put those women in line for promotion to vice president roles, the team said. Women accounted for 21.5 percent of vice presidents across the NBA’s 30 teams last year. The Pistons otherwise have about 80 to 90 women in roles from senior directors, managers, senior coordinators, and an assistant athletic trainer, to executive and administrative assistants, ticket sales, corporate sales, events, and parking jobs. That’s out of about 250 total employees. PS&E’s Elizabeth Godek, who is senior director of premium and member experience, recently co-founded the Detroit chapter of Women In Sports & Events that aims to help women in their careers with guidance and networking. The organization has an event planned before the Pistons’ March 28 game at the Palace.

and managers, among S&P 500 companies, according to data from the progressive Washington D.C.-based Center for American Progress think tank. And female minorities account for just 3.9 percent of executive- or senior-level officials and managers in those companies, the center said. General Motors Co., for example, has five women among 21 corporate officers — including CEO Mary Barra. That’s 24 percent.

Results Kane, the University of Minnesota professor, said gender equity efforts in professional sports have been a mixed bag. “The old boys club has to begin to value to what women can bring to the table,” she said. Otherwise, women can view outreach and hiring as a sop to political correctness and tokenism on the part of team ownership, she added. “One or two in leadership roles, you can say you’re not discriminating,” Kane said. She advocates for the NFL’s Rooney Rule to be adopted by all pro sports leagues and teams to ensure qualified women get better chances for executive jobs in front offices. Title IX being on the books for so long, and changes to employment law, mean there are more women qualified than ever before. “We have a significantly higher pool to draw from,” Kane said. “In that sense, we’ve made progress.” Bill Shea: 313 (446-1626) Twitter: @Bill_Shea19

C R A I N ’ S D E T R O I T B U S I N E S S // M A R C H 2 7 , 2 0 1 7

FESTIVAL FROM PAGE 3

Valade’s patronage began with establishment of a $15 million endowment in 2005-06 to help save the festival, and it’s continued over the past several years, as needed. Valade, 91, has pledged to make sure her estate picks up the slack when she’s no longer around to make annual infusions to ensure the event remains free and both it and the educational programs and concerts throughout the year continue, Jazz Festival board President Tom Robinson said. Relying on a single donor to support much of the cost of the Labor Day event, which attracts about 300,000 people to downtown Detroit each year, would typically present risks, Robinson acknowledged. But Valade’s commitment “will at least help us transition over a period of years while we adjust financially,” he said. Valade, who founded Grosse Pointe Woods-based jazz label Mack Avenue Records, stepped up early in 2005 to save the jazz festival with a $250,000 contribution after Ford Motor Co. ended its title sponsorship. Between then and the following year, she pledged an additional $15 million to support the festival, performances throughout the year and year-round educational programs for Detroit children through the Gretchen C. Valade Endowment for the Arts. The foundation’s educational programs include Jazz Infusion, which brings professional artists/mentors in to work with about 100 students annually at seven Detroit schools,

TIME FROM PAGE 3

The opt-out bill Rep. Peter Lucido, a Republican from Shelby Township, is the sponsor of a bill that received a hearing last week in a House committee. As written, Michigan would opt out of the time change, though Lucido said he has revised it to allow Rep. Peter Michigan to perLucido: Sponmanently stay in sored bill. Daylight Saving Time. Washington would have to say OK first. “There is no rational basis, no logic and, most importantly, no common sense” behind the switch from standard to daylight time, Lucido told the committee. The U.S. Department of Transportation, which regulates the nation’s time zones, says observing daylight time conserves energy, lowers the number of traffic-related injuries and reduces crime. Evidence is mixed. Academic studies also have found that changing clocks leads to sleep deprivation that increases traffic fatalities, offsets any energy savings from turning on lights with higher demand for

and the J.C. Heard JazzWeek@ Wayne program, a weeklong, free summer camp held in collaboration with Wayne State University for 4050 youth musicians. The foundation took students from both programs to perform at the Detroit Regional Chamber Mackinac Policy Conference last year and in 2014. Many local corporate and private foundations initially thought the festival would survive off the roughly $500,000 a year in interest the endowment would have generated. But the fund has been drawn down to cover sponsorship shortages and cost overruns that year and in the years since. Valade told Crain’s in 2012 that her biggest mistake was disclosing the amount of her donation because it gave the impression that the festival’s funding was handled, and sponsorships dried up. The festival has worked for years to bring on more corporate support. The list of companies supporting it today is about 45 names long. And last year, corporate sponsors contributed just over $1 million or 23 percent of the organization’s $4.6 million budget. That’s up from about $300,000$400,000 in corporate sponsorships in 2009 and 2010, as the region came through the recession. But Valade contributed 52 percent of the budget last year and a comparable amount the two or three years earlier. The rest came from donations, grants, vendor proceeds and other sources. “We haven’t crossed that line yet, with companies really taking the lead,” Robinson said. “We’re still a few years away from that … but we’re making progress.” Quicken Loans came on as pre-

senting sponsor of the jazz festival last year, and plans to return at some level this year, Jasmin DeForrest, Quicken Loans sponsorship manager, said in a forwarded statement. The Detroit-based company has set a goal to bring a million new visitors to Detroit this year to help increase demand for local hotels, restaurants and retailers, which would, in turn, spur the creation of more service and retail jobs, she said. “To achieve this goal, we strategically support events that bring people with diverse backgrounds and interests together in Detroit, and the Jazz Festival is a perfect example.” Other longtime sponsors of the festival are stepping up their support of the festival, with a few contributing an additional $10,000-$15,000 each last year, Robinson said. But the budget for the festival and other programs have also grown in recent years, from $3.58 million in fiscal 2014 to $3.7 million in 2015, $4.6 million in 2016 and $4.9 million this year. That translated to losses in 2014 and 2015 and a projected loss for 2016, a function of consciously choosing not to cut corners on the festival performances (for example, adding another screen where needed) and to maintain educational programs, said President and Artistic Director Christopher Collins, a local jazz musician and WSU professor who came on board to lead the organization about a year ago. The foundation’s 2017 budget is realistic, he said, taking into account real costs and any carryover debt, without cuts to programs or the festival. The hope is that sponsorships

pick up even more, and Valade won’t have to contribute as much, Robinson said. “But she’s committed to keeping the festival the size it is. Chris Collins: She doesn’t want Came on board to us to make any lead organization. cuts.” Still, Collins acknowledges the foundation’s challenge is to create other income sources to build on the stability of Valade’s generosity rather than relying on it. Early this month, the foundation launched a campaign to raise a permanent endowment through gifts of $25,000 or more initially and smaller gifts to build on those. They will create and bolster endowed funds benefiting various programs and focus areas inherent to the Detroit Jazz Festival Foundation’s mission. The family of James Charles Heard, one of the most recorded jazz drummers of all time, is working to raise a $100,000 endowment in honor of the late musician’s 100th birthday that’s focused on mentoring young artists, Collins said. The endowments are about creating permanence to give people a sense of optimism about the Detroit Jazz Festival, “which is often a question when you see one name ... or one company so largely associated,” he said. The foundation is also looking to earn new revenue through a new e-commerce store set to launch on its website by Labor Day, offering in-demand items such as posters signed by the acclaimed jazz musi-

cians performing at the Detroit festival. And it’s launched the Detroit Jazz Fest LIVE! app which will give viewers access to a live stream of all of the live performances during the Detroit jazz festival for a $10 download fee. Modeled after a similar app developed for the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, the app was developed on the strength of a $200,000 grant from the New York-based Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. N-Media coordinated the development, which was a collaboration among Oxford Solutions Inc., DaCast and Detroit Public Television. The app is available through the Google Play Store and will be soon through the Apple App Store and will be marketed across all of the foundation’s print, television and online advertisements and also through social media and eblasts to the festival’s supporters. “A big piece of this is about exporting the amazing initiative that’s going on here in the Detroit jazz festival and the city of Detroit itself,” Collins said. “This is no small backyard festival, this is a major cultural event,” he said, drawing about 300,000 people, nearly a third from outside of Michigan and some as far away as Europe and Asia. The app presents an opportunity for people around the country to see that and for jazz patrons who’ve never been here to see that the lineup is comparable to any major jazz festival in the world, Collins said. “What I hope is it also excites folks to say, ‘Let’s go to Detroit next year.’”

air conditioners and could increase the frequency of workplace injuries. Lucido told reporters that Michigan should lead the effort to adopt a single time. He said he has heard from Michiganders who want year-round daylight time and residents already have to adjust to changes in time zones when they cross borders. “We do business here in Michigan,” he said. Business, though, happens across borders. Indiana chamber leaders say one of the biggest challenges of following a single clock all year was that people from outside the state who worked with companies in the Hoosier State never knew what time it was. The time change contributed to missed conference calls and deliveries and shipments that would show up early or late, said Mark Fisher, the chief policy officer at the Indy Chamber. Sometimes, companies that bid on municipal bond issues would submit bids after the acceptance window closed because they didn’t realize the hour difference. “Those of us who had to do business with people on the East Coast or West Coast, you wanted to be in sync with somebody and, instead, we were always out of sync,” Arland said, adding that broadcasters had to air shows on tape delay, which made station operations “mind-numbingly confusing.” And confusion, he said, is detrimental to business.

Arizona and Hawaii are the only other states that don’t follow Daylight Saving Time. “Those of us who are lifelong Hoosiers, like myself, were quite pleased to join the rest of society, even though it does mean resetting your clocks,” he added. “A lot of them set themselves nowadays.” Farmers and drive-in movie theater owners were among the main holdouts to observing Daylight Saving Time. Farmers, who work during daylight hours, weren’t in favor of losing an hour of sunlight in the early morning and working later into the evening. Yet their opposition was less adamant by the end, said Katrina Hall, public policy director for the Indiana Farm Bureau. “Nobody else was on our side, so it was hard for us to put much effort into fighting it,” she said. “We have seemingly adjusted to it fairly well.” Business leaders who were around in the mid-2000s say staying on a single time all year was a logistical nightmare. “Where are most of your customers, your suppliers, your end users of products that you make?” Fisher said. “Is it better to be tied in the same time zone as the rest of your economy?”

clocks on the same March and November dates, or exempt themselves from the switch and follow standard time year round. Observing Daylight Saving Time year round isn’t an option, even though Americans spend most of their year on its clock. The federal Transportation Department said commerce is the main factor influencing decisions to swap time zones — namely, where businesses ship products, where newspapers are published and TV networks broadcast and where airports are located. Here’s where it gets tricky: To make year-round daylight time happen, Michigan would technically have to leave the Eastern Time Zone and align itself with Nova Scotia, which follows Atlantic Time an hour ahead of Detroit and New York. Michigan would be the only U.S. state in this time zone. It then would have to exempt itself from observing Daylight Saving Time. Got that? In case not, here’s an example. Let’s say it’s a summer night, 8 p.m. in Detroit and New York (7 p.m. in Chicago) during Daylight Saving Time. Fast forward to November, when New York and Chicago fall back and Michigan does not. It’s still 8 p.m. in Detroit, but now it’s 7 p.m. in New York and 6 p.m. in Chicago. So if the Legislature adopts Luci-

do’s bill, and Gov. Rick Snyder were to sign it and petition the federal government to make the change, and U.S. transportation administrators were to agree to move Michigan into another time zone, then Michigan would spend the winter one hour ahead of New York and two hours ahead of Chicago. “That’s the problem,” said Kevin Brinegar, president and CEO of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, who was in the job in 2006. “I used to describe it as death by a thousand paper cuts,” Brinegar said. “It sounds like this bill would open up that whole can of worms for your state, if it were to pass.” The Michigan Chamber of Commerce hasn’t taken a position on the bill; Rich Studley, its president and CEO, said in an email that chamber members “would rather see state lawmakers spend their time on higher priority issues of broader concern,” including workforce development and lowering the cost of Michigan’s auto insurance. Rep. Eric Leutheuser, R-Hillsdale and chairman of the House commerce and trade committee, said he was interested in holding a hearing, but doesn’t plan a vote on the bill anytime soon. Even if Lucido’s bill goes nowhere, the issue will come around again — just like the time change.

It gets tricky Federal law says states either can observe Daylight Saving Time, which requires them to change

Sherri Welch: 313 (446-1694) Twitter: @SherriWelch

Lindsay VanHulle: (517) 657-2204 Twitter: @LindsayVanHulle

C R A I N ’ S D E T R O I T B U S I N E S S // M A R C H 2 7 , 2 0 1 7

PROJECTS FROM PAGE 3 www.crainsdetroit.com Editor-in-Chief Keith E. Crain Executive Vice President KC Crain Publisher/Editor Ron Fournier, (313) 446-1674 or rfournier@crain.com Group Publisher Mary Kramer, (313) 446-0399 or mkramer@crain.com Managing Editor Michael Lee, (313) 446-1630 or malee@crain.com Director, Crain Custom Content Kristin Bull, (313) 446-1608 or kbull@crain.com Product Manager/Marketing Kim Winkler, (313) 446-6764 or kwinkler@crain.com Deputy Product Manager/Digital Carlos Portocarrero (313) 446-6056 or cportocarrero@crain.com Membership Director Nancy Hanus, (313) 446-1621 or nhanus@crain.com News Editor Beth Reeber Valone, (313) 446-5875 or bvalone@crain.com Special Projects Editor Amy Elliott Bragg, (313) 446-1646 or abragg@crain.com Design and Copy Editor Beth Jachman, (313) 446-0356 or bjachman@crain.com Research and Data Editor Sonya Hill, (313) 446-0402 or shill@crain.com Newsroom (313) 446-0329, FAX (313) 446-1687, TIP LINE (313) 446-6766

REPORTERS Tyler Clifford, breaking news. (313) 446-1612 or tclifford@crain.com Annalise Frank, breaking news. (313) 446-0416 or afrank@crain.com Jay Greene, senior reporter Covers health care. (313) 446-0325 or jgreene@crain.com Chad Livengood Covers Detroit rising. (313) 446-1654 or clivengood@crain.com Kurt Nagl Breaking news. (313) 446-0337 or knagl@ crain.com Kirk Pinho Covers real estate. (313) 446-0412 or kpinho@crain.com Bill Shea, enterprise editor Covers the business of sports. (313) 446-1626 or bshea@crain.com Lindsay VanHulle, Lansing reporter. (517) 657-2204 or lvanhulle@crain.com Dustin Walsh, senior reporter Covers economic issues. (313) 446-6042 or dwalsh@crain.com Sherri Welch, senior reporter Covers nonprofits and philanthropy. (313) 446-1694 or swelch@crain.com ADVERTISING Sales Inquiries (313) 446-6032; FAX (313) 393-0997 Director of Sales Lisa Rudy Senior Account Manager Katie Sullivan Advertising Sales Gerry Golinske, Sharon Mulroy, Diane Owen Classified Sales Manager Angela Schutte, (313) 446-6051 Classified Sales Lynn Calcaterra, (313) 446-6086 Events Manager Kacey Anderson Marketing and Sales Promotions Manager Christina Fabugais-Dimovska Senior Art Director Sylvia Kolaski Special Projects Coordinator Keenan Covington Sales Support Suzanne Janik Media Services Director Geof Innis Media Services Manager Hussein Abdallah CUSTOMER SERVICE Main Number: Call (877) 824-9374 or customerservice@crainsdetroit.com Subscriptions $59 one year, $98 two years. Out of state, $79 one year, $138 for two years. Outside U.S.A., add $48 per year to out-of-state rate for surface mail. Call (313) 446-0450 or (877) 824-9374. Single Copies (877) 824-9374 Reprints (212) 210-0750; or Krista Bora at kbora@crain.com To find a date a story was published (313) 446-0406 or e-mail infocenter@crain.com Crain’s Detroit Business is published by Crain Communications Inc. Chairman Keith E. Crain President Rance Crain Treasurer Mary Kay Crain Senior Executive Vice President William A. Morrow Executive Vice President/Director of Strategic Operations Chris Crain Executive Vice President/Director of Corporate Operations KC Crain Vice President/Production & Manufacturing Dave Kamis Chief Financial Officer Bob Recchia Chief Information Officer Anthony DiPonio G.D. Crain Jr. Founder (1885-1973) Mrs. G.D. Crain Jr. Chairman (1911-1996) Editorial & Business Offices 1155 Gratiot Ave., Detroit MI 48207-2732; (313) 446-6000 Cable address: TWX 248-221-5122 AUTNEW DET CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS ISSN # 0882-1992 is published weekly by Crain Communications Inc. at 1155 Gratiot Ave., Detroit MI 48207-2732. Periodicals postage paid at Detroit, MI and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS, Circulation Department, P.O. Box 07925, Detroit, MI 48207-9732. GST # 136760444. Printed in U.S.A. Contents copyright 2017 by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of editorial content in any manner without permission is prohibited.

used in Britain, Australia and Massachusetts to fund social programs and the savings to government is returned to investors. “We’ve got a lot of people who are problem solvers looking at how do we build a better Detroit,” Uhl said. “And in that case, one of our core pieces working on neighborhood stability is blight removal.” Since moving Quicken to Detroit from the suburbs in 2010, Gilbert has spent more than $2 billion of his wealth gobbling up 95 downtown Detroit properties, quickly becoming the largest landlord and employer with 17,000 workers. But as the billionaire mortgage impresario has built a downtown business empire, his companies have become increasingly focused on playing a bigger role in fixing what ails one of the poorest big cities in America. “You can’t just build this gilded central city and forget about the rest of the people,” said Uhl, who came to Rock Ventures from the Skillman Foundation. The community initiatives and activation division at Rock Ventures is driven by a “for more than profit” mission that mixes Gilbert’s big bet on Detroit with a “moral imperative” to reverse decades of decline, said Helen Davis Johnson, vice president of community activation at Rock Ventures. Johnson’s group toggles between projects aimed at boosting tourism to Detroit by 1 million visits this year and programs that help local entrepreneurs launch or expand small businesses. “We’re adamant that’s important to restarting the wealth engine,” said Johnson, who previously worked at the Kresge Foundation.

Digitizing records Gilbert’s portfolio includes 110 businesses that vary vastly in purpose from selling mortgages and making football helmets to designing office interiors and answering inbound phone calls for other Detroit businesses. Rock Ventures is attempting to use the varying professional skills of its workforce for volunteer projects that go beyond stocking shelves at a local food pantry. In the case of the DPS records project, Quicken employees who handle sensitive homeowner documents each day are helping the district purge hundreds of thousands of pages of old student records. They’ll eventually be digitizing essential records that DPS graduates and dropouts routinely need for employment, passports, verifying their citizenship and obtaining Social Security disability benefits. More than 500 employees from Quicken and other Gilbert companies signed up to help on a project that was an overwhelming task for the cash-strapped school district. “If we have anything, it’s human capital,” said Rachel Perschetz, director of community investments for Rock Ventures.

CHAD LIVENGOOD/CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

Quicken Loans employees Lawrence Reliford, right, and Kelly Erickson sort old student records at Detroit Public Schools Community District’s warehouse on East Warren Avenue. Employees can volunteer unlimited hours on company time for nearly 250 approved causes across metro Detroit. The DPS project was sparked by problems Detroit’s hospitals had with getting high school transcripts and health records of job applicants who attended Detroit schools that have long been closed. Officials at Henry Ford Health System, St. John Hospital, Detroit Medical Center were rescinding job offers to Detroiters because DPS had delays of up to three months to produce a copy of a former student’s academic records, said Jeff Donofrio, executive director of workforce development for Mayor Mike Duggan. “When we have Detroiters not being able to get jobs because you can’t find the records in a timely manner, it just seemed like a very logical one for us to kind of swing at,” Uhl said. Duggan detailed the project during his Feb. 21 State of the City address. “Who’s going to scan these million pieces of paper?” Duggan said. “Well, only one person in town had that many people — so we went to Dan Gilbert.” Quicken’s involvement is saving DPS “a huge amount of money,” Donofrio said. “Having Quicken at the table really changes the whole dynamic and the speed at which you can accomplish the task at hand,” Donofrio said. Like many support services in Detroit schools, the warehousing and records department has been hammered by budget cuts. Darreaux Waddell, the lone archivist for Detroit Public Schools, said his department shrunk from 60 workers in 2009 to a team of five he now manages. The daunting task of tracking down student records dating back to the 1950s was compounded by an influx of records from nearly 80 schools that closed over the past decade, he said. Since the beginning of February, Quicken employees have showed up each morning Tuesday through Friday to help Waddell and his assistant sort through boxes of student records. Neither Waddell nor the Rock Ventures executives know many

pages of records are contained in the white file boxes stacked floor to ceiling in the warehouse. “At our current speed, it’s going to take years,” Uhl said. The remaining records will be digitized with scanners donated by Lear Corp. and saved in a database that Quicken employees are helping the DPS information technology department develop, Uhl said. “You guys are coming in and assisting me in a major way,” Waddell told Quicken employees during a recent three-hour document-purging session. Quicken employee Kelly Erickson said the company’s request for volunteers on the DPS project was a cause she could relate to. “As someone who has needed student records of my own, I can’t imagine not being able to get those records,” she said. Ford Motor Co. and Lear Corp. have used their employees for mass volunteer projects, but not in the way Gilbert is, said Peter Remington, a veteran corporate fundraiser and president of The Remington Group. “Dan has kind of taken it to a new level,” Remington said.

Fighting blight Since planting his flag in Detroit, Gilbert has made fighting blight one of his missions, even as his mortgage company has come under scrutiny for a higher number of foreclosures in the Motor City after the 2008-2009 housing crisis that fueled neighborhood abandonment. Depressed housing values since the Great Recession have proved to be one of the biggest obstacles to getting a mortgage to buy a home in Detroit. In an attempt to boost home val-

ues, Quicken Loans set aside $5 million for a revolving loan fund to renovate homes owned by the Detroit Land Bank Authority through a partnership with Home Depot. Since August 2015, the Rehabbed & Ready program has renovated 37 homes in four neighborhoods, sold 27 of them and has four pending sales. The average cost of construction and broker fees is $89,181. But Quicken subsidizes about $21,000 of the cost to create a sale price that can be matched for comparable homes in each neighborhood. InHouse Realty and Title Source — two Gilbert companies connected to Quicken — have handled the listings and title work for free. Data from Multiple Listing Service suggests the sales are having some effect on driving up home values, which are key to appraisals and getting financing from a lender like Quicken. In the Bagley neighborhood on the city’s northwest side, average sale prices were $19,175 in 2011 and $36,373 in 2015, the year the Rehabbed & Ready program began, according to MLS data. Nine Rehabbed & Ready houses in the Bagley neighborhood have sold for an average of $88,267, according to Quicken, while house sale prices in the neighborhood are averaging $52,693 this year. The higher sale prices for the move-in ready homes creates comparable sales that can spur more sales or refinancing, said Gina Metrakas, an executive vice president at Quicken Loans. “People who are sitting in homes in these neighborhoods are starting to move on them because they’ve seen what this program has been able to do to prices,” said Metrakas, who came to Quicken in 2014 from U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Subsidizing rehab projects to create comparable sales records on homes in Detroit neighborhoods can also create new business for Quicken. The land bank’s website includes a link for potential home buyers to “get preapproved with Quicken Loans” for a mortgage. Remington said Gilbert’s mixture of business with community aid fits with the “venture philanthropy” trend started by Silicon Valley technology companies. “They’re putting people into a neighborhood, stabilizing the neighborhood and they’ve got skin the game,” Remington said. “It really is to be commended and modeled.” Chad Livengood: (313) 446-1654 Twitter: @ChadLivengood

INDEX TO COMPANIES These companies have significant mention in this week’s Crain’s Detroit Business: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan

FCA US LLC

Clark Hill PLC

Humble Design

Clayton & McKervey

OPS Solutions LLC

E.W. Grobbel Sons Inc.

Quicken Loans

Detroit Lions

Sachse Construction and Dev. Co. LLC

Detroit Pistons

U-Haul

Detroit Red Wings

United Meat and Deli Inc.

Detroit Tigers

Woodborn Partners LLC

8 10

C R A I N ’ S D E T R O I T B U S I N E S S // M A R C H 2 7 , 2 0 1 7

THE WEEK ON THE WEB MARCH 18-24 Developers sought for 12 acres of Detroit riverfront land

ne of Detroit’s largest bondholders during its historic municipal bankruptcy says more than 2.2 million square feet of space could be built on nearly 12 acres of east riverfront land it received development rights to as part of its settlement agreement with the city. Syncora Guarantee Inc., based in Bermuda, is putting a March 31 deadline on possible development partners to submit proposals, according to an offering document obtained by Crain’s that has been privately circulated in the past several weeks. The company said in a statement that it is “actively working with the city, along with various local stakeholders, to develop the best solution for each property.” “We have had substantial interest in the riverfront properties and are engaging in an open and equitable process to identify partners who will properly steward this land to complement the current community-driven plans and development,” the statement said.

COMPANY NEWS J Troy-based Tollbrook LLC has proposed a luxury loft-style apartment complex with 140 units on more than 2 1/2 acres of land near Big Beaver Road and McClure Drive, east of Somerset Collection. J Demolition of the former Peabody’s Restaurant in Birmingham has begun, with plans for a $30 million five-story mixed-use development in the works from Southfield-based Alden Development Group. J Lear Corp. was selected to work with the Wyoming Department of Transportation on a pilot program to improve road safety by providing technologies that allow vehicles to communicate with other vehicles and avoid accidents. J Labatt Blue signed on as a Landmark-level partner and will become the official and exclusive Canadian import beer of the Detroit Red Wings. Huntington Bank also signed a deal, becoming the naming rights sponsor of the northwest entrance and the Legends Club inside the arena. J Detroit-based luxury goods maker Shinola/Detroit LLC rolled out a new marketing campaign with a series of stories and messages it says illustrate the values and characteristics of American workers. Ads designed by Partners & Spade in New York City will hit Detroit with billboards and building murals on April 3. J Ann Arbor-based pharmaceutical company ONL Therapeutics Inc. has

Detroit Digits A numbers-focused look at last week’s headlines

5,000

The number of J.C. Penney Co. employees to be affected when seven Michigan stores close around June.

$4.2 million

The amount the Michigan Economic Development Corp. and New Economy Initiative aim to raise to bring local tech companies more startup capital.

The number of billionaires in Michigan, with Hank and Doug Meijer, co-chairmen of Grand Rapids-based Meijer Inc., topping the Forbes list.

been awarded a commercialization readiness grant of $1 million from the National Eye Institute to continue advancement of the company’s lead drug candidate. J Jordan Avakian Group, co-founded by Jeffrey Michael Jordan and Sevan Avakian, has acquired private equity in Detroit-based WaitTime LLC, which uses artificial intelligence to provide people waiting in line at entertainment events with real-time wait times. J Restaurateur Joe Vicari of Joe Muer Seafood in Detroit is suing to stop a new restaurant at the Mall at Partridge Creek in Clinton Township, Muer’s Table + Bar, from using the Muer family name.

OTHER NEWS J Rodrick Miller, president and CEO of the Detroit Economic Growth Corp., is leaving the economic development organization effective March 31 to “pursue other opportunities,” according to a news release. J Carrie Lewand-Monroe said she will step down from her post as executive director of the Detroit Land Bank Authority in mid-May as the agency continues to deal with a fed-

eral investigation and dispute with the state over contractor billing. She plans to do private development and consulting for Invest Detroit. J The Heidelberg Project nonprofit’s administrative offices are moving to temporary space in the West Village now that the organization’s eightyear home in Brush Park has been purchased for $1.15 million by an ownership entity called Detrel LLC, which has different plans for the building. J The Detroit Public Schools Community District announced three finalists for the position of superintendent: Nikolai Vitti, superintendent of Duval County (Florida) Public Schools; Derrick R. Coleman, superintendent of the River Rouge district; and Orlando Ramos, regional superintendent for Milwaukee Public Schools. J The city of Warren now has an industrial property base in that sector that far outpaces Detroit's at $578.2 million, triggered in part by a handful of sweeping industrial expansions and retoolings in the automotive industry. J Detroit’s plan to squirrel away surplus funds to help absorb a $200 million balloon payment on pensions has won praise from Moody’s Investors Service, which called it a “credit positive” move. J A new report by advocates for Michigan’s public Medicaid behavioral health system estimates it has saved the state $5.3 billion over the past 18 years and would save an additional $7.4 billion through 2024 using their patient-centered and integrated care model. J The Detroit Public Schools Community District filed a lawsuit March 17 in the Michigan Court of Claims seeking a ruling naming its poor-performing schools exempt from state-ordered closures for three years under the argument that the district is technically only 9 months old. J Detroit’s Department of Housing and Revitalization is seeking proposals to develop a vacant former Catholic school building in the Banglatown neighborhood into a mixed-income apartment building, with help from the Archdiocese of Detroit.

TOD WILLIAMS BILLIE TSIEN ARCHITECTS | PARTNERS

Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids Township plans to expand and update its botanic and sculpture experiences over four years, including building a new welcome center, transportation center and amphitheater.

RUMBLINGS

PHOTO BY ROB KOHN/THE DISTRICT DETROIT

Construction on the steel trusses supporting the ceiling of the Via concourse surrounding Little Caesars Arena in The District Detroit has finished Thursday, with the opaque material between the trusses to be installed in the coming weeks.

Trusses in place for Little Caesars Arena atrium Iron Workers Local 25 and Detroit-based Ideal Contracting LLC have finished work on steel trusses that span the walkway surrounding the Little Caesars Arena bowl. Installation of the trusses started the week of Feb. 1, with crews hoisting the white supports into place on the Via, a 61,000-squarefoot covered walking area with offices, retail stores and restaurant options, The District Detroit said in a news release. The 65 trusses are individually shaped, varying from 40 to 120 feet long. They connect to the arena on the inside and to new mixed-use buildings outside the arena, creating an atrium with a clear covering between the trusses that allows light in. The $635 million Little Caesars Arena is scheduled to open in September at I-75 and Woodward Avenue. The venue is the centerpiece of The District Detroit, a 50-block mixed-use development of $1 billion or more of new office space, retail, residential, bars and restau-

rants. Separately, Labatt Blue has signed on as a Landmark-level partner and will become the official and exclusive Canadian import beer of the Detroit Red Wings, Olympia Entertainment announced. Labatt will have a branded Labatt Blue Zone bar on the main concourse of the new Little Caesars Arena in downtown Detroit, as well as sponsorship rights to the Labatt Blue Club in the north end. Labatt Blue began its partnership this season and is the official Canadian beer of the Detroit Red Wings. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The Landmark-level corporate deals are multimillion-dollar investments and the second-highest level of branding investment in the new arena after the naming rights deal struck last year by the Little Caesars pizza chain ($120 million over 20 years). Landmark deals are for a minimum of five years, but can range up to 10 years.

DPD seeks trademarks to sell branded items The Detroit Police Department could soon bring more into the kitty for training and equipment with things like branded onesies and shot glasses, among other tchotchkes. In the past month, the department has applied for trademarks for both “Detroit Police” and “DPD” to put on goods such as those, as well as cell phone battery chargers, lunch boxes, beer and coffee mugs, lap blankets and golf towers. The “Detroit Police” trademark was filed Feb. 28 and the “DPD” trademark on March 13. Michael Woody, a police spokesman, said “many” other police departments around the country have done similar things. “We also have been working very hard on developing our brand and don’t want to allow just any-

body to capture our logo and use it for their own messaging or personal gain,” Woody said in an email, adding that the department is starting to review vendors that use its name and logo “to see what we can work out and give them a fair chance to apply for or request a license.” The New York City Police Foundation earned over $470,000 from NYPD licensing and other revenue in the fiscal year ending in June 2015, the last year for which it was immediately available. The police department is just the latest city agency to file a trademark, with “Project Green Light” being trademarked last year and the Detroit Land Bank Authority (not officially a city agency) trademarking its name and the name of its home auction program, Rehabbed & Ready.

APRIL 27-30, 2017 - COBO CENTER A FESTIVAL OF BRIGHT ENERGY IDEAS FEATURING SHELL ECO-MARATHON AMERICAS